Vermonters question student suspension rates

PLAINFIELD – For years, Sha'an Mouliert watched as her son struggled, acted out and ran into discipline problems throughout his time in Vermont schools.

Insensitive disciplinary practices, she said, exacerbated his challenges from a young age.

"As a boy, as an African-American boy, they had a bias for his behavior, they did not accept that he had a disability, they did not accept that he had emotional disabilities," Mouliert said. "My son is now in jail."

Mouliert shared her story Monday night as several dozen Vermonters gathered at the Plainfield Opera House to discuss a recent Vermont Legal Aid report about school suspension rates.

The report, which says that students with disabilities, black or African-American students and Native American students are suspended and expelled at disproportionate rates, has stirred discussion since its release last month. State lawmakers are now looking at ways to investigate further.

Jay Diaz, an attorney with Vermont Legal Aid, spearheaded the report.

"When kids experience school failure, when they're not doing well, they're very likely to get suspended because they're very likely to act out," Diaz said on Monday night. "When they get kicked out, three things happen: One, they're more likely to drop out of school. Two, they're more likely to end up in juvenile justice system, and three, they're more likely to end up incarcerated and in poverty as an adult."

Using Vermont school data reported to the federal government, Diaz found that 3,982 students were suspended out of school or expelled during the 2011-12 school year. An additional 3,861 students were suspended within school.

Students with individualized education programs to support their needs were about three times more likely to receive in-school suspension than students without individualized education programs, according to the report.

But data is incomplete because some schools have failed to submit data on student discipline to the federal government, according to the report.

"This lack of accountability has contributed to a policy resulting in unfair student exclusion from school for days, weeks, and months – many times for infractions as minimal as insubordination, running from kindergarten class, and cursing," Diaz and his co-authors wrote.

Diaz said he has been surprised by the reaction from principals. "I actually expected to just be ignored," Diaz said in an interview. Instead, school administrators have been calling him to discuss the report.

Some Vermont administrators have pushed back on the report, even though they say discipline issues deserve attention in general.

Ken Page, executive of the Vermont Principals' Association, assured the Senate Education Committee last week that "principals are not in the business of suspending students without good cause."

"Taken alone, the student suspensions don't directly lead to life's successes or failures and these school suspensions alone don't cause one to take a wrong path," Page said in written testimony for legislators.

Page questioned the data that was used to create the Vermont Legal Aid report, and said it's unnecessary for Vermont to create a new committee to study the issue, which was one response being considered by the committee.

But David Manning, principal of Johnson Elementary School, is convinced. He participated in Monday's panel discussion in Plainfield alongside Diaz, Mouliert and Max Barrows of Green Mountain Self-Advocates.

As a principal, Manning initially felt defensive when he first read the report, but he said after talking with Diaz that he respected the work.

School discipline policies are generally fair, Manning said, but "the problem is the school is only set up for one group of the children to succeed."

Schools need to focus on building students' internal social and emotional skills from an early age, Manning said.

"Having suspended many kids in my career," Manning said, "suspension has never changed a kid's behavior. All it's ever done is gotten the kid out of school so that the behavior doesn't happen in school the next day."

Jeff Francis, head of the Vermont Superintendents Association, said educators need to be attentive to disparities in discipline, particularly as the state grows more diverse.

As advocates and educators weigh the report's conclusions, state officials are saying that more data is needed.

The state Agency of Education is developing a school climate survey that will touch on discipline issues, Secretary Rebecca Holcombe said in an interview Tuesday.

Agency spokeswoman Jill Remick said the state also wants to collect more accurate, more reliable data on school discipline. The state also encourages schools to implement Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports — an approach to problematic student behavior that's used in about 43 percent of Vermont schools — which is associated with lower suspension rates overall.

Parents are, of course, focused on their own child's situation in school. Vermonters in Plainfield spoke of experiences with autism and other particular learning needs that weren't always adequately addressed by educators.

It's easy to get mad at schools, said Manning, the principal from Johnson.

"But if we want to change why are kids getting suspended, if we want to change are schools doing enough to support kids before they get to the place of getting suspended, we need to work with the principals and superintendents," Manning said. "... Channel that anger that you might feel towards your local school or toward schools in general, and channel that into, 'How do I work with these people and see if we can make change collaboratively?' "

Contact April Burbank at (802) 660-1863 or aburbank@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AprilBurbank