{"id":372928,"date":"2025-11-12T02:37:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T02:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/372928\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T02:37:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T02:37:18","slug":"nyc-school-suspensions-down-but-unevenly-as-black-special-ed-students-disciplined-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/372928\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC school suspensions down, but unevenly, as Black, special-ed students disciplined most"},"content":{"rendered":"

While New York City public schools are issuing fewer suspensions overall<\/a>, sharp disparities by race and disability status remain, according to new data.<\/p>\n

Schools handed down 27,143 suspensions last school year, the system\u2019s most recent report showed \u2014 a 2.1% decrease from the year before. The figure kept with a trend of steady declines since an uptick during the 2022-23 school year<\/a>, as kids readjusted to the classroom after the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

But the drop was uneven, particularly for Black and special-education students, who continue to be barred from attending class, sometimes for weeks, at higher rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot ignore that this decline was not felt equally across the system,\u201d said Maria Odom, executive director of Advocates for Children of New York, which weighed in on the data<\/a> Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Over the last decade, the city\u2019s school system has moved away from lengthy suspensions<\/a>\u00a0in favor of progressive discipline that focuses on conflict resolution and the root causes of student misbehavior<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As suspensions decreased overall last year, so did what are known as \u201csuperintendent\u2019s suspensions,\u201d<\/a> which can keep students out of class for more than a week. The long-term suspensions, which are reserved for more serious infractions and subject to disciplinary hearings, plummeted by 10% last school year, according to the report.<\/p>\n

However, the racial and disability status imbalances were particularly acute for superintendent\u2019s suspensions, Advocates for Children found. Black students, who make up a fifth of all students, received 47% of the lengthy punishments \u2014 an increase of 2.4 percentage points from the year before.<\/p>\n

\"(Shutterstock)\"The drop in suspensions was uneven, particularly for Black and special-education students, who continue to be barred from attending class, sometimes for weeks, at higher rates. (Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Students with disabilities, who account for less than a quarter of enrollment, got 46.7% of the higher-level suspensions, up 3.5 points. Earlier this year, a Chalkbeat New York investigation found that schools are suspending students for weeks without properly considering their disability<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Total suspensions were also up for students who were homeless or in foster care, who were suspended at four times the rate of their classmates<\/a>, according to Advocates for Children\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n

In a statement, a representative for the public schools said education officials \u201cknow this work must be ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are continuously working toward encouraging schools to address any issues in a positive, supportive and less punitive manner where possible,\u201d spokeswoman Jenna Lyle said.<\/p>\n

But as the progressive practices have grown more widespread, so has the backlash<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Critics say the reforms have failed to hold students accountable and led to disorderly classrooms. Under Mayor Adams, the school system planned to retrain all principals on applying the discipline code<\/a>, in response to administrators who reported feeling discouraged from taking action against serious misconduct.<\/p>\n

Advocates insist the policies help young people address the harm they caused and provide an opportunity for authentic repair and change. They hope the Mamdani administration will fund restorative justice programming and mental health services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that the next administration will [understand] punitive discipline is, for the most part, harmful to young people, and does not actually address the root causes of behavior,\u201d said Rohini Singh, director of the school justice project at Advocates for Children.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccountability is part of restorative justice,\u201d she added, \u201chelping students understand the harm that their behavior can cause \u2014 which can lead them to change their behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While New York City public schools are issuing fewer suspensions overall, sharp disparities by race and disability status…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":372929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,407,1370,728,405,403,5294,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-372928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-county","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115534407069926497","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}