Academic, Attendance, and Behavioral Outcomes of a Suspension Reduction Policy: Lessons for School Leaders and Policy Makers

Abstract

Background: Exclusionary discipline (e.g. suspension and expulsion) is associated with lower student achievement, drop-out, and involvement in the juvenile justice system. Recently, states and school districts have begun to restrict exclusionary discipline, but there remains much to be learned about the potential impact on students. Research Design: I use a comparative interrupted time series to estimate whether a state policy prohibiting out-of-school suspension as a consequence for truancy affected student achievement, attendance, truancy, or disciplinary referrals. Findings: After testing a variety of specifications checks, I find evidence of slight increases in attendance, particularly for disadvantaged students, with suggestive evidence of improvements in test scores and reductions in disciplinary referrals for some students. Conclusions: These improvements were quite modest relative to what we might expect from an intuitively appealing policy and were likely influenced by incomplete compliance, particularly in areas serving more students from traditionally disadvantaged backgrounds. Implications for policy design and school leadership are discussed.

Exploring an Unexamined Source of Racial Disparities in Juvenile Court Involvement: Unexcused Absenteeism Policies in U.S. Schools

“…It is not known what would happen to absenteeism rates if all punitive responses were abolished and only nonpunitive approaches were used. While Anderson (2020) found that disallowing suspensions for unexcused absenteeism did not affect attendance rates, other punitive responses to absenteeism remained in place in the study site. In 2015, after Texas barred jailing youth for unexcused absenteeism except in extreme cases, court filings for truancy declined by 90% (Texas Office of Court Administration, 2016) without concomitant attendance declines.…”

Overrepresentation of Indigenous students in school suspension, exclusion, and enrolment cancellation in Queensland: is there a case for systemic inclusive school reform?

“…Many US public-school systems have since adopted substantial reforms: California banned the use of suspensions and exclusions for children in the early years of school (K-3;Freedberg, 2019), Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Philadelphia reduced permissible suspension length, and all three jurisdictions either banned or limited suspensions for minor reasons. Recognising the tendency for exclusionary discipline to reinforce task and school avoidance (Graham, 2018), Arkansas banned out-of-school suspension for truancy and Miami-Dade County Public Schools eliminated suspensions entirely (Anderson, 2020;Hinze-Pifer & Sartain, 2018). Within 1 year of the Guiding Principles being issued, …22 states and the District of Columbia had revised their laws in order to require or encourage schools to: limit the use of exclusionary discipline practices; implement supportive (that is, nonpunitive) discipline strategies that rely on behavioral interventions; and provide support services such as counseling, dropout prevention, and guidance services for at risk students.…”

Estimating the Impact of Expulsions, Suspensions, and Arrests on Average School Proficiency Rates in Ohio Using Fixed Effects

“…Schools and districts that successfully implement restorative justice practices show lower cases of student removal. Furthermore, there is some evidence that policies that restrict out-of-school suspensions improve educational outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged students (Anderson, 2020).…”