The Children’s Agenda calls for ending suspensions for young children

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — One group is calling for the end of suspensions for young children in schools in New York.

The Children’s Agenda released a report Thursday. It documents over-reliance on and disproportionate use of suspensions, even with children as young as pre-K through third grade. The report also found suspensions happen more often with Black and Hispanic students, students with disabilities and students who are economically disadvantaged.

“A wide body of research shows that suspensions and expulsions lead to students having less trust and identification with their school, lower reading and math scores, lower rates of high school graduation and college completion and most troublingly increased encounters with the criminal justice system and incarceration,” said education policy director at The Children’s Agenda Eamonn Scanlon.

The group wants to require school codes of conduct to include restorative approaches to discipline, limit the use of suspensions in younger students and shorten the max length of suspensions from 180 to 20 school days.