Students Suspended from School, by Disability Status

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Learn More About School Attendance and Discipline

Measures of School Attendance and Discipline on Kidsdata.org
Kidsdata.org offers the following measures of school absence and exclusionary discipline:
*Levels of school connectedness are based on a scale created from responses to five questions about feeling safe, close to people, and a part of school, being happy at school, and about teachers treating students fairly.

State-level CHKS estimates, although derived from the Biennial State CHKS, may differ from data published in Biennial State CHKS reports due to differences in grade-level classification of students in continuation high schools.
School Attendance and Discipline
Bullying and Harassment at School
Children's Emotional Health
Disconnected Youth
Pupil Support Services
Impacts of Special Health Care Needs on Children and Families
School Climate
Gang Involvement
Health Care
School Safety
Youth Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Use
High School Graduation
Why This Topic Is Important
Regular school attendance is a predictor of academic success (1). Frequent absences for any reason are linked to negative school outcomes, including lower test scores and higher dropout rates, which can have lifelong effects on employment and earning potential (1, 2). A child might miss school for many reasons, including excused absences (such as for health or personal reasons), truancy, and exclusionary punishment (suspensions and expulsions). Rates of chronic school absence tend to be higher among students who live in poverty, those with special health care needs or disabilities, youth of color, English learners, homeless students, and children in foster care (1).

Students who are suspended or expelled are more likely than their peers to have academic problems, drop out of school, and enter the juvenile justice system (3, 4). In the 2015-16 school year, U.S. public school students lost more than 11 million days of instruction due to suspensions (4). Suspensions and expulsions disproportionately affect children of color (particularly African American/black and American Indian/Alaska Native students), those with disabilities, and LGBTQ youth (3, 4).

Exclusionary punishment also leads to significant social costs. For example, dropouts resulting from suspensions have been estimated to cost California approximately $2.7 billion over the lifetime of a single 10th grade cohort (5). Costs are due in part to lost wages and tax revenue, increased crime, and higher health care expenses.
For more information on this topic, see kidsdata.org’s Research & Links section.

Sources for this narrative:

1.  Chang, H. N., et al. (2018). Data matters: Using chronic absence to accelerate action for student success. Attendance Works & Everyone Graduates Center. Retrieved from: https://www.attendanceworks.org/data-matters

2.  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Healthy People 2030: High School Graduation. Retrieved from: https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health/literature-summaries/high-school-graduation

3.  U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. (2019). Beyond suspensions: Examining school discipline policies and connections to the school-to-prison pipeline for students of color with disabilities. Retrieved from: https://www.usccr.gov/reports/2019/beyond-suspensions-examining-school-discipline-policies-and-connections-school-prison

4.  Losen, D. J., & Whitaker, A. (2018). 11 million days lost: Race, discipline, and safety at U.S. public schools (Part 1). Center for Civil Rights Remedies & American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. Retrieved from: https://www.aclu.org/report/11-million-days-lost-race-discipline-and-safety-us-public-schools-part-1

5.  Rumberger, R. W., & Losen, D. J. (2017). The hidden costs of California's harsh school discipline. California Dropout Research Project & Center for Civil Rights Remedies. Retrieved from: https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/summary-reports/the-hidden-cost-of-californias-harsh-discipline
How Children Are Faring
Nearly 155,000 California K-12 public school students were suspended from school in 2020—25 for every 1,000. Suspension rates vary dramatically across regions with data, from 13 per 1,000 to 62 per 1,000 for counties and from fewer than 3 per 1,000 to more than 150 per 1,000 for school districts in 2020. Statewide, suspension rates by demographic group show disparate disciplinary treatment of students of color (particularly African American/black and American Indian/Alaska Native youth), students with disabilities, homeless students, foster youth, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. In 2018-2020, socioeconomically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities were suspended at more than double the rate of their peers, and foster youth were suspended at more than four times the rate of non-foster youth.

In 2020, California students were expelled from school at a rate of 0.5 per 1,000, a drop of two-thirds compared with 2012. Among students with disabilities, foster youth, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and students of every race/ethnicity for which data are available, expulsion rates decreased between 2015-2017 and 2018-2020. Still, disparities persist. In 2018-2020, rates of expulsion among African American/black (1.6 per 1,000) and American Indian/Alaska Native (1.7 per 1,000) students were more than double the rate for Hispanic/Latino students (0.7 per 1,000), more than triple the rate for white students (0.5 per 1,000), and ten times the rates for Asian American and Filipino students (0.2 per 1,000). The rate at which homeless students were expelled from school was 1.6 per 1,000, up from 1.4 in 2015-2017, and more than double the rate for non-homeless students (0.6 per 1,000).
Student reports from 2017-2019 show that an estimated 21% of 7th graders, 25% of 9th graders, 34% of 11th graders, and 39% of non-traditional students in California had skipped school or cut class at least once in the previous year. Students with low levels of school connectedness, those whose parents did not finish high school, and gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth were more likely to be truant from school than their peers in other groups. Staff reports that truancy or cutting class were at least a mild problem at their school ranged from 28% (elementary staff) to 86% (high school staff) during the same period.

In general, whether children miss school, and their reasons for absence, vary by student and family characteristics. According to 2017-2019 estimates, 49% of California students in grades 7, 9, 11, and non-traditional programs with high levels of school connectedness did not miss any school in the previous month, compared with 33% of students with low levels of connectedness. Across groups with data in 2017-2019, reasons for absence not related to physical illness were commonly lack of sleep, needing to assist family or friends, and not feeling safe at school.
Policy Implications
Frequent disciplinary removal from school is associated with higher student dropout and delinquency rates (1, 2). In fact, students who regularly miss school for any reason—unexcused or excused—are at increased risk for academic failure and dropping out (3). While disciplinary removal may be necessary at times, suspensions and expulsions generally do not result in safer schools or better student behavior (1, 4). In addition, research has documented disparate disciplinary treatment of youth of color, students with disabilities, and LGBTQ youth (1, 2).

California has enacted numerous policy changes over the last decade to improve school discipline and attendance, including a recent ban on out-of-school suspensions in grades K-8 for minor disruptive or defiant behavior (5, 6, 7). While substantial progress has been made, much more work is needed to ensure that all schools, beginning with pre-K, implement effective, equitable discipline policies and provide positive learning environments (4, 8). In accordance with state guidelines, many districts are employing evidence-based strategies that focus on improving school climate and providing students with the support they need to succeed (8). In addition, increased efforts have focused on identifying absenteeism and truancy early, and intervening in non-punitive ways, to help improve student attendance and success (3, 7).

Policy and practice options to continue progress on school discipline and attendance include:
  • Increasing awareness about the need to address chronic absenteeism and school discipline, and strengthening the capacity of districts and schools to carry out comprehensive, prevention-oriented solutions (3, 4, 9)
  • Providing schools with adequate support to improve school climate and to adopt a whole-child approach to education, which is linked to better student engagement and behavior; such efforts should involve families and community partners, provide staff training and instruction on social-emotional skills, and implement systems to address behavioral health and other needs (9)
  • Ensuring that schools have non-punitive, restorative discipline policies that are clear, fair, and consistent, and that teachers and administrators are adequately trained; this should include trauma-informed, culturally-sensitive practices and a tiered system of appropriate responses to misconduct that keeps students in school when possible (4, 9)
  • Ensuring that high-suspending schools have technical assistance and resources to make necessary improvements; also, continuing efforts at the state and local levels to eliminate the use of out-of-school suspensions for minor misbehavior (4)
  • Collecting, reporting, and using data at the school and district levels on exclusionary punishment and resulting days of missed instruction, with detail by student race/ethnicity, gender, disability status, LGBTQ identification, and reason for removal (4)
  • In accordance with state policy, improving efforts to uncover and flag chronic absenteeism—both unexcused and excused—early in elementary and middle school by tracking attendance in real-time and analyzing absence data at the district, school, grade, and student subgroup levels (3)
  • Ensuring that schools and community partners use attendance data to reach out to parents and students early—before absences become chronic—to offer support; as part of this, increasing formal collaboration (e.g., through school attendance review boards) with local agencies and service providers to engage hard-to-reach families and address underlying causes of absences (3)
  • Ensuring consistent administration of school climate surveys, and strengthening the capacity of schools and districts to use the results as a tool for change (4, 8)
For more information, see kidsdata.org’s Research & Links section or visit Attendance Works and Fix School Discipline. Also see Policy Implications under these kidsdata.org topics: School Climate, School Safety, and Bullying and Harassment at School.

Sources for this narrative:

1.  Cardichon, J., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2019). Protecting students’ civil rights: The federal role in school discipline. Learning Policy Institute. Retrieved from: https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/student-civil-rights-school-discipline-report

2.  U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. (2019). Beyond suspensions: Examining school discipline policies and connections to the school-to-prison pipeline for students of color with disabilities. Retrieved from: https://www.usccr.gov/reports/2019/beyond-suspensions-examining-school-discipline-policies-and-connections-school-prison

3.  Attendance Works, et al. (2018). Seize the data opportunity in California: Using chronic absence to improve educational outcomes. Retrieved from: https://www.attendanceworks.org/policy/state-education-policy/california/seize-the-data-opportunity-in-california

4.  Losen, D. J., & Martin, K. (2018). The unequal impact of suspension on the opportunity to learn in California. Center for Civil Rights Remedies. Retrieved from: https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/school-discipline/the-unequal-impact-of-suspension-on-the-opportunity-to-learn-in-ca

5.  Freedberg, L. (2019). California to extend ban on pushing students out of school for disruptive behavior. EdSource. Retrieved from: https://edsource.org/2019/california-to-ban-pushing-students-out-of-school-for-disruptive-behavior/617326

6.  Bohan, S. (2018). The collective impact of suspending suspensions. Stanford Social Innovation Review. Retrieved from: https://ssir.org/books/excerpts/entry/the_collective_impact_of_suspending_suspensions

7.  Attendance Works. (n.d.). State attendance policy: California. Retrieved from: https://www.attendanceworks.org/policy/state-education-policy/california

8.  Furger, R. C., et al. (2019). The California way: The Golden State's quest to build an equitable and excellent education system. Learning Policy Institute. Retrieved from: https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/california-way-equitable-excellent-education-system-brief

9.  Darling-Hammond, L., & Cook-Harvey, C. M. (2018). Educating the whole child: Improving school climate to support student success. Learning Policy Institute. Retrieved from: https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/educating-whole-child-report
Websites with Related Information
Key Reports and Research
County/Regional Reports
More Data Sources For School Attendance and Discipline