A Portrait of School Discipline Reform: Exclusionary Discipline and Subjective Infractions in Timber County, Alabama

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Desegregation, Resegregation, and Critical Policy Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on a reform effort beginning in 2010 in Timber County, Alabama, aimed at reducing exclusionary discipline, and driven by a legal advocacy group and community organizers. Drawing from policy documents, publicly available enrollment and demographic data, and state-provided discipline data, we trace the patterns of exclusion (i.e., suspensions, expulsions, placement in alternative schools, and referrals to law enforcement) for three years before and three years after the settlement resulting from the reform effort. We focus particularly on subjective infractions (i.e., those infractions subject to practitioner interpretation) as they are the infractions most likely to be disproportionately assigned to students of Color. We highlight promising outcomes as well as limitations of the reform effort.

Authors

• Carey E. Andrzejewski, Auburn University

• Hannah Carson Baggett, Auburn University

• Nanyamka A Skukura, Southern Poverty Law Center

• Jasmine Betties

• Sangah Lee, Auburn University