AAP: Suspensions, expulsions harm students’ mental and physical health
By Kara Arundel
- Suspending or expelling a student is one of the most severe punishments schools can issue, and those actions can have lifelong, harmful consequences, according to an updated policy statement issued Oct. 1 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
- In its first update on the issue since 2013, AAP said research over the past 20 years shows that suspensions and expulsions don’t necessarily deter misbehavior. In the 2020-21 school year, 28% of students were suspended more than once.
- AAP recommends schools reduce the use of exclusionary discipline through trauma-informed practices, as well as collect and analyze discipline data to identify areas for improvement.
The nonprofit pediatric organization also suggests students be monitored for chronic absenteeism and screened for developmental disabilities — both of which can make school more challenging for students.
Research shows that students from marginalized communities, including students with disabilities and LGBTQ+ students, are disproportionately impacted by exclusionary school discipline policies, AAP said.
“When students are not in school, they are more likely to use recreational drugs, engage in fights, and carry a weapon, with potential for increased contact with the juvenile justice system,” said Dr. Susanna Jain, author of the policy, in a statement. “The school-to-prison pipeline places these children at increased risk of a cycle of incarceration.”
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Thursday also found that “unfair” school discipline practices were linked to various health risks and experiences, such as being bullied at school, carrying a weapon to school, prescription opioid use, and attempted suicide.
CDC said its report is the first to investigate the connection between school discipline and health and well-being using a nationally representative survey sample of U.S. high school students. Of the survey respondents, 19.3% reported being unfairly disciplined during the previous year.
″Investigating the association between discipline and health is important to understand and promote health equity in schools,” the CDC report said. “These findings demonstrate that school discipline is an urgent public health problem.”
Last year, the U.S. Department of Education issued a guide for reducing disproportionate discipline through practices that include creating a positive school climate, increasing access to student mental health services, and developing rigorous and welcoming learning environments.