Guest Blog from the ACLU

Last year, a video of a sheriff’s deputy handcuffing a young boy with disabilities in a Kentucky school went viral. The child, an 8-year-old boy, was so small that the school resource officer locked the handcuffs around the child’s biceps and forced his hands behind his back, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. In the video, the boy, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a history of trauma, cries out in pain.

Shocking cases like these rightfully make headlines, and they are part of a problem that is well-publicized: Every year, more than 40,000 Washington public school students are suspended or expelled, and special education students make up nearly a third of these students.

In fact, special education students are suspended or expelled at a rate more than double the rate of discipline for their non-special education peers. In 2015, 7.9 percent of special education students in Washington public schools were expelled or suspended compared to just 3.2 percent of non-special education students. And 7.9 percent is just the statewide average — more than two dozen school districts suspended or expelled more than 10 percent of special education students in their districts.

Suspensions and expulsions contribute to what is known as the “school-to-prison pipeline.” Students who are out-of-school suspended and expelled are as much as 10 times more likely to drop out of high school than students who are not out-of-school suspended or expelled, and they are more likely to become involved in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Students who don’t complete high school are, in turn, likely to have fewer educational and employment opportunities to choose from, and experience higher rates of unemployment overall.

Formal discipline is just part of the problem: students with disabilities may be pushed out of school in insidious ways. Schools may persuade parents to agree to shortened school days for their special education students, depriving special education students of an appropriate education. Students with disabilities may spend a portion of a school day outside of class, in a hallway or another classroom, where they don’t participate in lessons. And parents of students with disabilities may get frequent calls to pick up their special education student from school as early as the first hour of the school day.

While incidents such as these don’t make for viral videos, they can cause significant harm. Depriving students of instructional time causes them to fall behind academically and struggle in school and may contribute to a pattern of disengagement that leads to dropout and contact with the juvenile justice system.

Under Washington’s constitution, it is a paramount duty of the state to provide education to all students. And even when a student is suspended or expelled, that duty is not diminished. All children have the right to an education encompassing “the basic knowledge and skills needed to compete in today’s economy and meaningfully participate in this state’s democracy.” In addition, our state’s anti-discrimination law makes it illegal to discriminate against someone based on their disability.

The ACLU strives for an America free of discrimination. Behavior related to students’ disabilities should be addressed in school through educational interventions and should not serve as a basis for exclusion, or worse, police involvement. When students with disabilities are pushed out of school, they are deprived of their right to education and put at risk of further criminal and civil institutionalization in schools, psychiatric hospitals, prisons, and jails.

If you believe your child has been unfairly disciplined or excluded from school because of behavior related to his or her disability, we want to hear about it. Learn more at http://www.aclu-wa.org/schooldiscipline.