Back to school at Florence Howard Elementary School in Mobile, Ala.

A student looks for his name on classroom list in this file photo. (Sharon Steinmann/ssteinmann@al.com)

(Sharon Steinmann)

Federal data shows there's a racial disparity at Dothan City Schools when it comes to disciplining students, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

About 55 percent of the student population in Dothan City Schools are black, but they represent 85 percent of in-school suspensions, 87 percent of out-of-school suspensions, 90 percent of the referrals to alternative school and 100 percent of the expulsions.

SPLC also found that students with disabilities were frequently disciplined for behavior related to their disability during the 2015-16 school year.

New data released by the U.S. Department of Education shows that nationally black students are four times as likely as their white classmates to be suspended from school.

SPLC has asked Dothan City School Board to change their disciplinary code and end their zero tolerance policies that lead to expulsions.

"Zero tolerance policies don't work," said SPLC staff attorney Natalie Lyons. "We now have decades of research and experience showing that putting kids out of the classroom decreases academic achievement, increases behavior problems and makes it much more likely that a child will drop out and end up in the juvenile justice system."

She said schools districts like Baltimore have found that keeping students in school keeps juvenile crime down and causes graduation rates to go up.

Dothan City School Superintendent Chuck Ledbetter told the Dothan Eagle that the school system is taking SPLC's recommendations "under advisement."

He said he agrees that it's time to end zero-tolerance policies, and he will likely have changes to the disciplinary code ready for the board to review in July.

Dothan City Schools has the third highest number of referrals of black students to law enforcement in the state, data shows. It is one of the school districts with the highest rates of disproportionate law enforcement referrals of black students.

Lyons said SPLC is at the beginning of its analysis of statewide data, and doesn't have a breakdown of how other districts compare.

SPLC paid close attention to Dothan after seeing startling data on explosions and referrals to law enforcement.

"We had also seen a media report about a Dothan child being tased by a school resource officer for conduct that did not appear to be assaultive or violent, so we decided to take a deeper look at the district as a whole," Lyons said. "When we looked further into the district, other issues popped up, including racial disparities in discipline, and specifically, suspensions and referrals to the alternative school."