Excluding Children from School: The Unintended Costs of Suspension Policy (April 2008)

Taby Ali and Alexandra Dufresne, J.D.

The use of out-of-school punishments in Connecticut schools is surprisingly common -- 152,849 school days were lost to suspensions or expulsions, the equivalent of 850 school years. Students are frequently excluded from school for behavior that poses neither a danger to people or property nor a serious disruption to the learning process. This fact sheet concludes that excluding students from school is an ineffective method of promoting good behavior, there is a significant educational cost to missing school, out-of-school suspensions may increase risk of involvement in the juvenile justice system, and measures designed to get to the root of the disciplinary problem are more effective tools to prevent misconduct. (April 2008)

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[1] Full Report (155.31K)