Black Preschoolers Receive More Suspensions In School, Government Studies Find

Black preschoolers are more likely to get suspended in school than their white counterparts, according to government education data. The data on schoolchildren, including disciplining them were collected by the United States Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

Clinical professor of law and director of the Education and Health Law Clinic at Rutgers Law School Esther Canty-Barnes said in an article that the preschool suspension statistics of black children show that racial inequality begins in preschool. Canty-Barnes compiled several government education data on preschool suspensions in her article.

Preschool Suspension Statistics

"Racial disparities in discipline begin in the earliest years of schooling," the OCR said in their data collection report for the 2011-2012 school year. The OCR reported that black students only made up 18 percent of preschool enrollment. However, 42 percent of these were suspended once and 48 were suspended more than once.

In contrast, there were more white students enrolled in preschool but they had lesser preschool suspension statistics. White students made 43 percent of overall enrollment but only 26 percent got suspended once. The same rate was recorded for suspension of the preschoolers more than once.

Disparity In Suspension Continues

The report released by the OCR last month covered the 2013-2014 school year. Black children were still in the minority, making up 19 percent of the enrollment but 47 percent of them were suspended one or more suspensions. This is compared to white preschoolers who made up 41 percent of the enrollees but only 28 percent got suspended once or multiple times.

In a separate article in billmoyers.com, National Coordinator of the Broader Bolder Approach to Education Elaine Weiss said that "we need to start having conversations about how much black lives matter in preschool, if not earlier." Weiss stressed that black lives of all ages matter.