New Haven Independent

Download the full report here.

The report, which says out-of-school suspensions are in most cases both ineffective and counterproductive, comes on the heels of a law that passed the state General Assembly last year requiring suspensions to be served in school unless “the pupil being suspended poses such a danger to persons or property or such a disruption of the educational process that the pupil shall be excluded from school during the period of suspension.”

The law was originally scheduled to go into effect this July, but implementation has been delayed until 2009.

According to the CT Voices report, entitled Missing Out: Suspending Students from Connecticut Schools, 17 percent of the 19,977 students in New Haven Public Schools received at least one out-of-school suspension in the 2006-2007 school year. Only Bridgeport and Hartford had higher rates, 22 percent and 19 percent respectively, with New London and New Britain also coming in at 17 percent. The statewide average was 7 percent.

Almost two-thirds of suspensions statewide were for school policy violations, like insubordination, disrespect, obscene language, and attendance violations, the report found. Only one third were for serious disciplinary offenses, like fighting, weapon or drug involvement, harassment, and theft.

The report also showed that suspension rates are disproportionately high among minorities and special education students. Black and Hispanic students had 18 and 13 percent suspension rates respectively, compared to 4 and 2 percent for white and Asian students. 15 percent of special education students were suspended in 2006-7.

And results were also broken down by District Reference Groups, while range from A (highest socio-economic status) to I (lowest). Group I, which includes New Haven along with Bridgeport, Hartford, New London, Waterbury, and Windham, had by far the highest suspension rate, at 18 percent.

Suspensions lasted an average of 2.9 days. Statewide, 41,227 students were suspended at least once. The total number of suspensions issued was 86,019.

The report was co-authored by Alexandra Dufresne, a senior policy fellow at CT Voices, and Taby Ali, a policy fellow. In a press conference, the authors discussed the data and the context of their report.

Dufresne said that out of school suspensions can reward misbehavior with a vacation from school, while not addressing root causes of behavior or teaching the student how to adjust the behavior.

She also said research shows that out-of-school suspension may contribute to the achievement gap, the drop-out rate, and involvement in the juvenile justice system. “By suspending children particularly for low-level conduct, the schools inadvertently send the message that perhaps the child doesn’t belong in school.”

She suggested that schools put more resources into disciplinary measures that focus on teaching the child how to improve his or her behavior, as well as into preventive measures. “Some kids come to school prepared to learn and prepared to act socially in an environment and unfortunately some kids just aren’t prepared,” Dufresne said. “If a child shows up to school and doesn’t know how to read, do you turn that child away because he’s holding everyone up, or do you invest in trying to teach that child the appropriate norms?”

Thursday’s report is the first of two on the subject of out of school suspensions. The second will be titled, Excluding Children from School: The Unintended Costs of Suspension Policy and Practice in Connecticut.

Drawing on extensive interviews with educators and policy-makers, it will examine disciplinary alternatives to out-of-school suspension and offer guidelines for the interpretation of the 2007 state law regarding suspensions.

Dufresne said the in-school suspension law is “a good first step forward,” and that further delays in implementation should be avoided, but that the authors also recommend that schools and the state invest in alternative and preventive measures, that can be as or more effective than in-school suspensions.

She also said that better teacher training can be a crucial way to cut down on unecessary and counterproductive suspensions. Anecdotal evidence from interviews suggests, she said, that many first year teachers resort to suspension to when they don’t know how else to maintain control.