Public school suspensions are down, but New York City students of color are still disproportionally receiving the most suspensions

For the fifth year in a row, suspensions as a whole across New York City public schools declined. Yet, Black and Hispanic students are still receiving suspensions at higher rates than white or Asian students across all academic levels.

The New York City public school population – the largest public school system in the country with 1,131,868 students in 2019-2020 – is overwhelmingly students of color, particularly Black and Hispanic, but the suspension numbers are not reflective of the white student population.

“Outside studies and research show that these disparities aren't related to an increased amount of misbehavior on the part of Black and Latinx students,” said Lindsey Foster, a research associate from the Metropolitan Center for Research and Equity and the Transformation of Schools at NYU Steinhardt. “They aren't inherently more misbehaved, disrespectful, insubordinate, etcetera, than their white and Asian counterparts.”

For the 2019-2020 school year, Black and Hispanic students made up 24.9% and 40.6% of students respectively while white and Asian students consisted of 15.1% and 16.3% respectively. The question Foster says we should ask ourselves is what explains the disproportionate numbers between the student population by race in relation to the suspension data by race.

Since his inauguration in 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio has worked to overhaul the discipline code and reduce the number of suspensions system wide. Over the past couple of years, he’s announced a series of reforms to reduce the number of suspensions, like cutting back on NYPD reliance in schools and encouraging and training teachers and social workers in alternative methods like “restorative justice initiatives.” This year, suspensions citywide saw a 66% decline since the 2013-2014 school year, according to a Department of Education spokesperson.

Suspensions were used as a way to curb school violence in the 1990s. With a strict discipline code – including the zero-tolerance policy – violence declined, but the number of suspensions rose sharply, according to reports from the New York Civil Liberties Union published in 2011.

But the implications of these exclusionary discipline actions are directly related to the phenomenon of school pushout, Foster says. “At any education level – elementary, middle, high school – students are being subjected to harsh discipline policies that restrict them from school, remove their opportunities for socialization with peers, and negatively impact the progress of their learning,” she said.

There are three types of exclusionary discipline actions that take place in New York City schools, before a student is expelled from the school system. At the lowest level, a teacher can temporarily remove a student from the classroom. Then comes the “principal suspension,” in which a principal suspends a student for up to five days. The “superintendent suspension” is imposed for more serious infractions to the discipline code, and would result in a student’s suspension for five days or up to a year. Facing pressure from activists in 2019, de Blasio proposed discipline reforms to cap the number of days a student could be suspended to 20.

So when a student who was suspended from school for a certain period of time, they’re lagging behind their classmates academically, which can lead to a lack of interest or increased frustration, Foster said, which can contribute to more misbehavior.

“This is especially dangerous when we consider how many students with disabilities and multilingual learners fall into the categories of Black and Latinx student suspensions,” she continued.

While the 2019-2020 numbers point to the downward trend, this year was special considering the citywide shutdown at the onset of the pandemic in March. However, the spokesman for the Department of Education pointed out that even prior to the transition to online learning, they were set to see a reduction in suspensions this year. He noted that overall suspensions were down 12.6% in March compared to the previous school year.

Various reports, from the NYCLU and Data Collaborative for Justice (DCJ) at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and grassroots organizations, are pushing the DOE to reform their discipline measures to cut create alternatives to exclusionary discipline actions that overwhelmingly affect students of color

During the 2019-2020 school year, Black and Hispanic students received 43% and 40% of suspensions respectively while making up 26% and 40% of the public school student body. White students, who comprise 15% of the student body only received 9% of the suspensions.

These disparities have endured for many years – with the DOE making significant investments in transitioning away from “punitive discipline and towards a model that emphasizes education, empathy, and safety for all students,” a spokesman for the DOE said.