Last week, the Central Valley School Board received an annual report detailing how many students received exclusion days (school district lingo for suspensions) during the 2023-24 school year. This discipline data indicates some populations within the district, including low-income students and students of color, are facing longer suspensions than their peers.
The written report was on the School Board's agenda for its Jan. 27 meeting. But other than reading the bullet point aloud, there was no discussion on the topic. Board President Stephanie Jerdon says that's normal for reports, especially when there isn't a presentation scheduled.
"My initial thoughts, and for most board members, is that we understood that this was just one piece of a much bigger picture," Jerdon says. "This is a standard report that's given every year from [the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction], and it's very helpful if you take it and look back at the trends over time so that you can understand in context."
The district's administrators agree, says Matthew Lambert, Central Valley's executive academic officer. Though he says this type of report can highlight discipline disparities in a school district, the most recent data doesn't show any significant issues in the district.
Overall, 824 of the school district's 15,208 students, or about 5.4%, faced a suspension in the 2023-24 school year. Nearly 60% of these students saw less than three days out of the classroom, while the rest were suspended for four or more days.
That percentage of students facing suspension is normal for school districts, Lambert says. For example, Spokane Public Schools disciplined approximately 5% of its students in the same school year.
"I'm passionate about keeping kids in school and really trying to not exclude students whenever possible," says Lambert, one of three academic officers who oversee student discipline in the district. "We are also making sure we're looking out for all of our students, and often the actual behaviors that lead to an exclusion are at the expense of another student."
However, for Deekon Jones, CEO of New Developed Nations, a Spokane nonprofit that provides music therapy to help at-risk youths who face discipline at school, the Central Valley data shows that students of color are being disciplined disproportionately to their white peers.
"What stands out immediately is the disparity in how long Black and Brown students are suspended compared to their white peers," Jones says via email. "While the total number of students disciplined might seem proportional to the district's demographics, the length of suspensions tells a different story — students of color are more likely to face long-term exclusions from school."
24% OF SUSPENDED BLACK STUDENTS GOT 10+ DAYS
During the 2023-24 school year, 12.9% of Central Valley's students who were suspended faced more than 10 days outside the classroom, often split up between multiple suspensions.
For example, if a student received four three-day suspensions, they would fall under the 10+ days category.
While 24% of Black students who were suspended got 10+ days, only 12.6% of suspended white students got exclusions that long.
That figure for Black students, which increased from 13.5% in the 2022-23 school year, is higher than it's been the previous five years.
Additionally, 50% of American Indian and Alaskan Native students who were suspended faced more than six days.
However, district officials say these percentages can be misleading due to the number of students in each demographic.
"Sometimes you see something that looks like, 'Oh, wait a minute, we have a real problem in this demographic or that demographic' when you look at the whole," Lambert says. "Because of the numbers of various constituents in each one of those subgroups, sometimes that can throw us off: 'Oh, it looks like there's a problem, but there were only three students in that subgroup, so it's a large percentage.'"
"I understand that data only tells part of the story, but we must ask: 'If it's not bias, then what explains these disparities?'" Jones says via email. "If Black and Brown students were being disciplined at the same rates and receiving similar consequences as white students, then you could argue there's no disparity. But that's not what the data shows. Instead, students of color are suspended for longer periods of time, meaning they're being punished more harshly."
Unlike some other school districts in the state, Central Valley is suspending students of different races somewhat proportionally to their total populations in the district.
In the Seattle School District, even though the population of Black students (7,186) is one-third the population of white students (23,091) the district disciplined twice as many Black students (454) as white students (210).
Meanwhile in Central Valley, 602 of the district's 11,646 white students (5.2%) faced suspension while 25 of the district's 327 Black students (7.6%) and 22 of the district's 184 American Indian and Alaskan Native students (11.9%) faced suspensions.
"Both situations are problematic because they show that race influences discipline outcomes, whether in frequency (Seattle) or severity (CVSD)," Jones writes. "The common thread is that students of color experience discipline in ways that push them further from academic success."
Spokane Public Schools disciplined 24 of 335 American Indian and Alaskan Native students (7.2%), 64 of 1,050 Black students (6.1%) and 840 of 19,394 white students (4.3%).
To address these outcomes, Jones thinks the school districts could increase teacher training on bias and culturally responsive discipline, shift to restorative justice, and hire more educators and counselors of color.
47% OF SUSPENSIONS AFFECT MIDDLE SCHOOLERS
Though they make up less than a quarter of the school district's population (3,250 students), nearly half of Central Valley's suspensions are given to middle school students. In total, 388 of the 824 students facing suspensions were in middle school.
While it might appear disproportionate compared to students in elementary or high school, North Pines Middle School Principal Jeremy Vincent says it's normal for middle schoolers to act out more often.
"There's two times in a person's life where their brain is growing at a rapid pace, from the ages of 1 to 3, and then from the ages of about 12 to 14," he says. "One of the things that we do here is we go over expectations, the exact same expectations every quarter four times a year, because we don't expect them to remember everything, because they don't. Their brains aren't capable of doing that yet developmentally."
While dealing with discipline many school districts, including Central Valley, use a method called positive behavioral interventions and supports, or PBIS, Vincent says. Under this model, teachers ensure that students know which behaviors are expected in the classroom, rather than punishing them for misbehaving.
"When a kid doesn't know how to read and write, what do we do? We teach them how to read and write," Vincent says. "When a kid doesn't know how to behave, what do we do? Traditionally we would say we discipline them, but when a kid doesn't know how to behave, we teach them to behave."
At North Pines there's a full-time staff member whose job it is to ensure those behavioral expectations are being taught, but Vincent says teachers also practice this in their classrooms. For example, instead of chastising a student who is being disruptive, a teacher might compliment another student who is quietly listening to the lesson.
3 OUT OF 4 SUSPENDED STUDENTS ARE LOW-INCOME
Less than half the students in CVSD are considered low-income. However, of the students suspended, nearly three-fourths are low-income. This isn't a shocking statistic, Vincent says, as most kids who face any kind of disciplinary action are working through other issues.
"I'll tell you nine times out of 10, something is going on at home," he says.
That's why North Pines Middle School has reintroduced something called the Champion Program. This pairs students with an adult in the building who checks in with them each day for six weeks. In these meetings the pair review goals for each class and reflect on changes they've been making.
So far, Vincent says this program has been wonderful for his students.
"Every time we get to the six-week mark on a kid where we exit them [from the program], both the kid and the champion say, 'Can we keep doing it?''' Vincent says with a smile. ♦
