New Report Shows Disparities in Suspension Rates for California, Alameda Schools

Alameda public schools suspended African American students at roughly three times the rate of students from any other sizable racial group during the 2009-2010 school year, a new report shows.

The report released Tuesday by the Los Angeles-based Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project, Suspended Education in California’s Public Schools, estimates that more than 400,000 students were suspended and removed from classrooms at least one time during the 2009-10 school year in California – enough to fill every seat in all the professional baseball and football stadiums in the state.

The California Department of Education reports over 750,000 total suspensions for the same year. These two estimates are consistent because many students were suspended two, three or even more times that year.

Suspended Education in California’s Public Schools analyzes recently released data from the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The report focuses solely on the number of students suspended at least once, and provides statewide estimates of student discipline data for nearly 500 districts across California. The analysis also illustrates the risk for out-of-school suspension faced by students from each racial group and by those with disabilities.

The report shows large racial disparities in grades K-12. In the 10 districts where students were at greatest risk for suspension, nearly one of every four students was suspended.

The racial breakdown showed that in these 10 districts, average student suspension rates were 41 percent for African Americans; 25 percent for American Indians; 21 percent for whites; 21 percent for Latinos; and 14 percent for Asian Americans.

In the –– not one of those "top 10" districts – the overall suspension rate for 2009-2010 was 5.2 percent, according to the study's figures. The suspension rates were 16.1 percent for African Americans; 50 percent for American Indians and Alaskan Natives; 5.7 percent for whites; 5.4 percent for Latinos; and 4.1 percent for Asian Americans.

Suspended Education in California’s Public Schools is co-authored by Daniel Losen, Tia Martinez and Jon Gillespie. 

The report, along with a spreadsheet of data from every California district covered in the report, can be found here.