The Unequal Impact of Suspension on the Opportunity to Learn in CA

Executive Summary

In 2016-17, schoolchildren in California lost an estimated 763,690 days of instruction time, a figure based on the combined total of 381,845 in-school suspensions (ISS) and out-of-school suspensions (OSS). By translating the underlying suspension rates into conservative estimates of the resulting lost instruction, this report intentionally highlights the unequal educational impact of suspensions. Using the same formula developed in our prior reports (we assign two days for each suspension), we estimate the number of days of instruction lost due to suspension by simply doubling the reported rates of suspension per 100 enrolled students.

California has been engaged increasingly in discipline reform efforts at the state and local level for well over six years. The subgroup trend lines describing the rates of lost instruction per 100 students make it clear that the racial gap has indeed narrowed. This conclusion may appear to contradict recent media coverage suggesting that, despite a reduction in suspensions overall, the disparities remain unchanged.1 The six-year trend lines in Figure 1 (see report and summary attached) indicate that Blacks students had the highest rate of lost instruction per 100 in 2011-12, and that they have experienced the steepest decline in rates of lost instruction of all racial groups.