Skip to content
Research report
Discipline Disparities
Nationwide Survey of State Education Agencies’ Online School Disciplinary Data for Students with Disabilities (Summer 2014)
Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles
School Disciplinary Data reported by SEAs online.

UCLA Civil Rights Project’s Center for Civil Rights Remedies has extracted information from all 50 State Education Agency (SEA) websites and Washington, DC to compile publicly-reported school disciplinary data below. The findings are shown in the downloadable spreadsheet with summaries of student disciplinary data for each state. Information in the table was corroborated by SEA staff. Although most states offer additional data on disciplinary actions upon request, this web-based tool only uses data readily available to the public online.

This Survey is limited to what reviewers found to have been publicly reported on each state’s website. Thirty-four states did not publicly report any school discipline data. Furthermore, only eight states disaggregate disciplinary data by race in their SEA website reporting.

Widespread state non-compliance with federal law found: As indicated in Table 1, 49 states failed to report discipline data for students with disabilities despite the following explicit federal requirement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): “(a) In general Each State that receives assistance under this subchapter, and the Secretary of the Interior, shall provide data each year to the Secretary of Education and the public on the following: (1)…(D) The incidence and duration of disciplinary actions by race, ethnicity, limited English proficiency status, gender, and disability category, of children with disabilities, including suspensions of 1 day or more.”  

2O U.S.C. Sec. 1418 (a)(1)(D) [emphasis added].

Table 1. Overview of Discipline Data Reporting across States (excluding Washington, DC)

SWD Discipline Data Online at State Department of ED Website States with Some Discipline Data States with Some Data Disaggregated by Race States Fully Complying with IDEA 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1418 (a)(1)(d)
YES
16
8 1
NO 34 42 49

Downloadable Spreadsheet (located on the right):

The spreadsheet contains detailed information regarding data indicators, SEA contact information, and data notes. If available, we have provided a link to the data sources in the spreadsheet (indicated by a hyperlink).

In compliance with the UC Open Access Policy, this report has been made available on eScholarship: escholarship.org/uc/item/0wq1s982

Stay Informed

Join our mailing list to receive updates on Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles research, publications, and events.

Join the Mailing List

Get in Touch

UCLA | Civil Rights Project
520 Portola Plaza
8370 Math Sciences, Box 951521
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521