Fewer Colorado students are being expelled in the wake of a statewide reform measure, according to a new study that could amplify Colorado’s voice in a growing nationwide debate over whether discipline procedures are setting students — particularly those from minority communities — on a path to prison and failure.
“Colorado School Discipline Report Card: Year One” was released Friday by Padres y Jovenes Unidos.
The group, which has worked on the issue for more than two decades, analyzed data for 2012-13, the first full school year since the adoption in 2012 of Colorado’s so-called Smart School Discipline Law.
The study found an overall 25 percent drop from the previous year in expulsion rates, from 0.24 per 100 students to 0.18. But statistics compiled from school districts also show that black students were almost four times and American Indian and Latino students around twice as likely to be suspended, expelled or referred to law enforcement authorities as white students. And the rate of referrals to law enforcement authorities was up 8 percent for black students, from 2.1 per 100 students to 2.2.
Daniel Kim, director of youth organizing for Padres y Jovenes, said the continuing racial disparities and differences from district to district show that more work needs to be done.
Colorado “has taken a big step in passing the law,” he added. “If it wants to continue to lead, it has to figure out a way to deal with the disparities.”
Denver Public Schools was among those showing big drops in expulsion and suspension rates. But statistics compiled by Padres y Jovenes also showed troubling disparities in rates for black and white students in Denver.
Antwan Wilson, an assistant superintendent in Denver, said the district was determined to continue work it began years before the state law was passed that included cultural training for teachers and training to help parents help their children understand what is expected of them at school. Wilson said the goal was to reduce expulsions and suspensions, but maintain discipline, and that progress takes time.
Wilson said that while Denver started reforms before the state law was passed, the law and the new national discussion helped reinforce what his teachers and administrators were trying to do.
He praised the law in particular for lifting requirements that in the past had led, for example, to students being automatically expelled for bringing a toy gun to school even when the circumstances were innocent.