Here are excerpts from “Reforming Discipline in Georgia Schools,” a new report by Georgia Legal Services Program that collected discipline data from every district to compare to enrollment data. The report concludes uneven punishments are handed out to students of color.
Nationally, racial and minority ethnic groups are disciplined more often and more severely than their peers. African-American students are three times more likely to be expelled or suspended than white students. Although they represent only 15 percent of the country’s students, “they make up 35 percent of students suspended once, 44 percent of those suspended more than once, and 36 percent of students expelled.” Hispanic and African-American students made up 50 percent of those involved in school-related arrests or referrals to law enforcement.
In Georgia, the statistics are even more alarming. For the 2011-2012 school year, African-American students represented 37 percent of all the students enrolled in Georgia but made up 54 percent of students receiving in-school suspension, 66 percent of those getting out-of-school suspension, and 50 percent of those expelled.
In contrast, Caucasian students in Georgia accounted for 44 percent of all students enrolled, 33 percent of in-school suspensions, 23 percent of out-of-school suspensions, and 24 percent of those expelled.
In Georgia, one in four students enrolled in the 2011-2012 school year was disciplined. One in eight students received in-school suspension; one in 12, out-of-school suspension, and one in 524, expulsion. A possible cause for Georgia’s trend of excessive exclusionary discipline is the student tribunal process.
Students, parents and attorneys for students often cite a lack of procedural due process and biased hearing officers in discipline hearings. Lack of standards for disciplinary hearing officer qualifications, evidence and burden of proof are among the problems that account for inadequate student due process.
Local boards of education can establish their own policies, rules and regulations for hearing officers, panels or tribunals to impose suspensions or expulsions. Thus, there is no uniformity in how disciplinary hearing officers are selected and the procedures they must follow.
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