Zero-Tolerance, School Resource Officers, and Exclusionary Discipline in Context

• In Event: School Discipline and the Importance of Context

Abstract

Although American schools have long been contending with high rates of exclusionary discipline (e.g., suspensions and expulsions), little research has examined school-level mechanisms that contribute to these high rates, or how their effects might vary across school contexts. Zero-tolerance approaches to discipline and school resource officers (SROs) represent two possible mechanisms that may influence discipline rates, although prior research and theory are inconsistent in the predicted direction and strength of these relations. One reason for this inconsistency may be that prior work has only infrequently considered the role of school context. This study, therefore, examines the relation between both zero-tolerance approaches to discipline and SROs and schools’ exclusionary discipline rates, while also examining differences across school contexts. The findings indicate that a high zero-tolerance approach to discipline is consistently predictive of higher rates of exclusionary discipline, but that SRO presence relates with these variables differently depending on school context. In particular, when SROs are placed in schools with a high zero-tolerance approach to discipline, they predict higher rates of exclusionary discipline in larger schools with fewer White students and greater disadvantage, and lower rates of exclusionary discipline in smaller schools with more White students and less disadvantage.

Author

• Benjamin Fisher, University of Louisville