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鈥淒iscipline for Black girls isn鈥檛 set up for the person being disciplined to explain themselves. It was more so just assumed that the person was in the wrong.鈥�

鈥嬧�嬧�淒uring my time in school I noticed that some of the Black girls would get in trouble for dress code even though their peers of a different body shape would not get in trouble for wearing the same thing.鈥�

鈥淔rom being in school, it always seemed to me that Black girls were always the ones who got disciplined. Not saying White girls never got disciplined, but maybe they were given a little more wiggle room for error unlike the other Black girls.鈥�

These were some of the observations young women shared with the researchers of a new U.S. Government Accountability Office , which found that Black girls in public schools face more and harsher forms of discipline when compared to other girls. While it’s long been known that Black female students are disproportionately punished in school, the GAO report determined that removals from class were happening to Black girls for similar behaviors as white girls and in the same schools. This points to the disparity being more about how Black girls are treated in school than how they act.

鈥淭his damning new report affirms what we鈥檝e known all along 鈥� that Black girls continue to face a crisis of criminalization in our schools,鈥� U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley said at a press conference last month unveiling the findings. 鈥淎nd the report provides powerful new data to push back on the harmful narrative that Black girls are disciplined more because they misbehave more.鈥�

Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat, is hoping the GAO report that she commissioned with House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and fellow congresswoman Rosa DeLauro can drive a legislative remedy to end racial disparities in the disciplining of Black girls. She told the that she realizes the a bill she re-introduced in April, stands little chance while Republicans control the House, but that states can take the findings and move on their own to address the inequity. 

While Black girls represented 15% of all girls in public schools, they received almost half of all suspensions and expulsions during the 2017-18 school year, including 45% of out-of-school suspensions, 37% of in-school suspensions and 43% of expulsions. 

Black girls received exclusionary discipline at rates 3 to 5.2 times that of white girls. This pattern held true in every state and most drastically in the District of Columbia, where the out-of-school suspension rate for Black girls was 20.5 times the rate for white girls. These disparities were felt even more harshly by Black girls with disabilities, who were more likely to be removed from school than both Black girls without disabilities and white girls who were also disabled. 

Exclusionary discipline can result in both short- and long-term negative outcomes for students, according to the report, not only disciplinary outcomes but also the preceding behaviors.

While previous GAO work demonstrated racial disparities in K-12 discipline, a dearth in data meant that researchers couldn鈥檛 establish whether that inequity remained across similar behaviors. This time, though, researchers were able to use an additional national data set 鈥� the School-Wide Information System 鈥� which tracks infractions and associated discipline across 5,356 schools in 48 states alongside U.S. Department of Education Civil Rights Data. 

This filled a 鈥渂ig gap in the research,鈥� according to Jackie Nowicki, the report鈥檚 lead researcher and a director on the GAO鈥檚 Education, Workforce, and Income Security team. 鈥淭hat was huge for us,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ecause 鈥� as far as we know 鈥� that kind of research has never been done before.鈥�

Nowicki said she hopes people will understand the results are, 鈥渘ot an opinion. It鈥檚 not a hypothesis. This is serious, robust, objective, non-partisan analysis from nationwide data.鈥�

The report also included an analysis of 26 empirical studies, data from the National Crime Victimization Survey and 31 responses to an anonymous questionnaire circulated to women ages 18-24 this year by the national organization,

Through this work, researchers identified multiple forms of bias that contributed to discipline disparities, including colorism and adultification, a form of racial prejudice in which kids of color are perceived as older, less innocent and more threatening. One study included in their review found that Black girls with the darkest skin tone were twice as likely to be suspended as white girls, which didn鈥檛 hold true for Black girls with lighter skin complexions.

Researchers also found that Black girls reported feeling less safe at and connected to their schools than their peers, factors which can impact both attendance and academic performance.

Amid a mental health crisis that is harming young girls in particular, 鈥渢his is a really important piece of that overarching picture about how girls see themselves, how they experience the world, and what they take with them into their [adult] lives after they’ve left K-12 school settings,鈥� Nowicki said.

To combat these issues, Pressley鈥檚 legislation would provide grants to states and schools that commit to banning discriminatory discipline practices, work to strengthen the Education Department鈥檚 Office for Civil Rights and establish a federal task force to study and eliminate these practices. 

Rohini Singh, director of the School Justice Project at Advocates for Children of New York, said she is optimistic that with increased awareness from reports such as this one, those on the ground, like school deans or administrators, will 鈥渃heck themselves鈥� before doling out consequences.

The report will also be helpful in implementing solutions, she said. Often in New York she hears debates about how to keep schools safe: 鈥淲hat that means for a lot of people is more police in schools, more discipline, more suspensions. It’s becoming clearer through reports like this 鈥� and data that we have 鈥� that that’s not necessarily the case 鈥� oftentimes students can feel less safe because they can be targeted.鈥�

Nowicki shares Pressley鈥檚 skepticism that the necessary action will happen at the federal level and her hope that the report can drive reforms locally.

鈥淭he kind of change that needs to happen here is going to happen school by school, building by building, individual by individual, by people who realize that this is a systemic issue shown in the data, and that we all can be part of this solution if we choose to be.鈥�

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