Youthful suspensions

Punishing our youngest students by kicking them out of school is counterproductive.

Why do kids act up in school? It’s a question difficult to answer for pre-K students. After all, many of them simply haven’t learned the basics of getting along and paying attention. For others, hunger, poverty, homelessness and learning disabilities present a challenge to kids and teachers alike. These sorts of problems can’t be disciplined away, yet too often Texas school districts suspend children as young as 4 and 5 years old rather than deal with the issues underlying their misbehavior.

During the 2015-2016, school year, Texas schools issued 2,147 in-school suspensions and 2,544 out-of-school suspensions to children 4 and 5 years old, according to a new report by Texans Care for Children, a nonprofit.

Mind you some of these kids being disciplined can’t even tie their own shoes.

Not only do these suspensions give young students a first impression of school as a negative place where they don’t belong, they also deny students learning time in the classroom. As a result, this disciplinary practice can backfire with potential lifelong consequences.

During the 2017 session, the state Legislature took a much-needed first step toward higher quality early education and banned out-of-school suspensions for public school students in pre-K through second grade. So now, if Sally talks nonstop throughout class because she can’t follow the teacher’s instructions due to a learning disability, she won’t be sent home and told not to return for a couple of days.

However, the Legislature, Texas Education Agency and school districts still have significant work to do. Unless districts are given more support, it’s all too likely when young children act up, they’ll be evicted from the classroom and sent to in-school suspension rather than the out-of-school variety.

The Legislature can do its part by making sure pre-K teachers aren’t overly stressed by having an unmanageable number of children in their classrooms. In 2016, the TEA commissioned a report on pre-K quality that recommended a maximum class size of 22 and no more than 11 students per pre-K teacher. The Legislature needs to implement the recommendations of that report.

In addition, the Legislature should fully fund access to therapies to children age three and under and reinstate Medicaid reimbursement rates for therapies for children with disabilities. The cuts in these areas mean that more students who will be attending school have not received the help they need. When children with disabilities and developmental delays don’t get the help they need, they’re more likely to have behavioral problems and other challenges in the early grades.

While legislative action is critical, it’s not essential for progress. School administrators, school boards and principals can look to several school districts, including Houston Independent School District, which acted in advance of the 2017 law to severely restrict suspensions. These districts fielded innovative ways to support students through access to coaches and early childhood mental health consultants, among other strategies.

The TEA can make a needed contribution by tracking and publishing what’s going on in the districts with regard to discipline. For instance, Killeen ISD suspends more pre-K students than any other school district in Texas. Killeen ISD’s suspensions account for 31 percent of the pre-K suspensions in Texas while educating only 1.6 percent of the pre-K students, according to the non-profit’s report. Since a high rate of early childhood suspensions is a signal that a district or campus and or classroom needs additional support, the TEA should be tracking this, not leaving it to the non-profit sector.

It’s not fair to a teacher or her classmates if a child acts up, but sending a child suffering from hunger, homelessness or learning disabilities to do worksheets for a day isn’t much of a solution and may only raise more barriers to in-school success.

Texas policymakers should tackle underlying issues so fewer young students, punished for conditions outside of their control, will develop a distaste for learning and more will get a strong start to their academic careers.