More Kids End Up in Jail When Schools Use Suspension as a Tool for Discipline

Exclusionary policies tag marginalized kids as troublemakers and steer them toward real cells.

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Students who are suspended from school even once are more likely to have contact with the juvenile justice system than one’s who are not. Research by Rice University’s Houston Education Research Consortium shows that Once those students returned to school, they were 20% more likely to be suspended. These numbers ring the alarm bells about what school disciplinary policies actually mean for kids. And unsurprisingly, its black children, economically disadvantaged and special education students who are more likely to bear the brunt of school disciplinary action.

than white students in the 2018–19 school year. Newer numbers show the gap hasn’t closed. Federal data for 2020‑21 put Black students at just 15% of enrollment but 18% of out‑of‑school suspensions (about a 50% higher per‑pupil rate), 91 per 1,000 white students; and a 2024 Hechinger Report analysis found Ohio…