Black Students in Handcuffs: Addressing Racial Disproportionality in School Discipline for Students with Dis/abilities

Abstract

Although there are federal protections for students with dis/abilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 1975, Black students with and without dis/abilities continue to be suspended and expelled at rates that exceed their peers. Still, there is limited research on how Black girls and Black boys are disciplined across suspension types, and based on their identification for special education services. The purpose of this article is to examine the overrepresentation of Black girls and Black boys with and without dis/abilities and to determine, using a quantifiable percentage, how the overrepresentation of Black students for in-school and out-of-school suspension can be eradicated. We use data from the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection 2011–2012 to examine equity (justice and fairness) in disciplinary referrals using state-by-state and regional data. Using an equity formula, we analyzed national data to determine the magnitude of Black females’ and Black males’ overrepresentation in in-school and out-of-school suspensions for students with and without dis/abilities. This study indicates that Black females with dis/abilities had the highest rate of overrepresentation in the Midwest in in-school and out-of-school suspension. In comparison, Black males experienced a greater representation in in-school suspension. Regardless of geographic area Black girls and Black boys are continuously being overrepresented in disciplinary punishments. To end the over-representation of Black girls and Black boys in in-school and out-of-school suspensions, schools and policy makers must collaborate with communities of color, eliminate teacher implicit and explicit racial biases, and discontinue racially punitive school policies.

Theorizing Racist Ableism in Higher Education

“…Students also resisted individualistic and deficit notions of dis/ability, which countered the ways in which whiteness centers dis/ability as pathology and instead recognized their experiences as interconnected to white supremacy and settler colonialism. It is important to recognize that DRCs are not only physical places, but also represent particular ideologies surrounding dis/ability and ability in much the same way scholars and prison abolitionists have recognized that prisons represent carceral logics and ideologies that extend beyond carceral locales such as prisons (Ben-Moshe, 2020; Davis, 2016; Hines et al, 2018). Students in the study recognized the ways in which dis/ability and trauma were interconnected and cyclical, which countered ideological perspectives that dis/ability was individual and static.…”

“…[which] can seldom be understood as shaped by one factor” (Collins & Bilge, 2016, p. 2). Although scholars have discussed race and dis/ability within K–12 educational contexts (Annamma, 2016, 2017; Artiles, 2011; Banks, 2015, 2017; Dávila, 2015; Ferri & Connor, 2005; Hines et al, 2018; Zion & Blanchett, 2011), the ways in which ableism intersects with other forms of oppression continues to be understudied in higher education research (Abes & Wallace, 2018, 2020; Miller, 2018; Miller & Dika, 2018).…”

Deficit-Oriented Beliefs, Anti-Black Policies, Punitive Practices, and Labeling: Exploring the Mechanisms of Disproportionality and Its Impact on Black Boys in One Urban “No-Excuses” Charter School

“…The researchers asserted that Black boys are not given the freedom to experience childhood because they are viewed as being "older" than White children; in school settings, this can impact how Black boys are treated. Examples include unnecessary violence perpetrated by school resource officers (Hines et al, 2018). When violence occurs, the swift attacks can be dismissed because Black children are seen as disposable.…”

Connection, Antiblackness, and Positive Relationships That (Re)Humanize Black Boys’ Experience of School

“…L. Warren, 2018). Understanding the contours of educator–student relationships with young Black men and boys in the context of a growing education research literature documenting how U.S. preK–12 and postsecondary education institutions function to dehumanize Black learners (e.g., Coles, 2016; Coles & Warren, 2018; Dancy et al, 2018; Dumas & ross, 2016; Hines et al, 2018; Jenkins, 2021; Mustaffa, 2017; Stovall, 2016) constitutes a contemporary education imperative. Antiblackness indeed shades how educators treat, see, know, and understand Black boys when negotiating interpersonal interactions with them.…”