The data on the shortcomings of zero-tolerance discipline is clear and overwhelming, and with increasing regularity and in increasing numbers school districts and states are responding to calls for reform. A wide range of approaches to address discipline concerns with new policies and laws are being tested across the country—including in New York City—with varying degrees of success and enthusiasm. Many of these efforts are spurred by grassroots activists, as well as a growing research base suggesting that suspensions—particularly for minor infractions—are a flawed discipline strategy. A 2011 analysis by the advocacy group and think tank Child Trends found that majority of school suspensions are for nonviolent offenses. The analysis cites a study on one large, unnamed urban school district in Florida showing that attendance violations and disrespect were the most common reason for suspensions in the jurisdiction, while another study, this one included in a DOE report, found 95 percent of out-of-school suspensions were for slight infractions and misbehavior.



The impetus for the emphasis on suspensions—which is still used in many districts and charter-school networks such as KIPP—didn’t have a strong research basis, explained Dan Losen, the director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA’s Civil Rights Project. Instead, schools took a cue from the 1970s War on Drugs with its zero-tolerance approach, he said, and dramatically expanded the use of exclusionary discipline—taking students out of their everyday educational settings—with unanticipated outcomes.

In New York City, the Department of Education and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who pledged to address school discipline in his progressive-themed mayoral campaign, rolled out a highly anticipated plan in February, which was met with a somewhat lukewarm review. A diverse coalition of students, parents, community and children’s-rights groups had worked for many years to reform the district’s discipline code, heavily weighted toward harsh disciplinary actions like summonses, out-of-school suspensions and arrests. Civil-rights groups also joined the push as discipline reports showed students of color disproportionately punished by schools. A major sore point for many activists in the old discipline code was a policy allowing principals to suspend students for up to five days for “insubordination.” The revised rules only tweaked this policy, leaving intact the option to suspend and simply shifting approval from principals to the DOE.



Zeroing in on this regulation is well-founded: “Insubordination” is the leading cause of suspensions in middle and high schools. An analysis of DOE data by the New York Civil Liberties Union shows “serious infractions” accounted for fewer than 2 percent of reported suspensions in the 2013-14 school year and eliminating the rule for defying or disobeying authority “would reduce suspensions in New York City by almost one-fifth.”



Underwhelmed by the first phase of changes, advocates turned attention to the mayor’s Leadership Team on School Climate and Discipline, tasked with crafting recommendations that would form the basis for more substantive policy. As a senior at Bushwick School for Social Justice, Rodriguez joined de Blasio’s team, one of only two youth members. She had advocated for a change in the discipline code for four years as a youth leader with Make the Road New York, a grassroots group that aims to empower Latino and working-class communities by advocating for education, housing, and labor-rights issues. And said she had seen friends unfairly suspended.