Advocates: FBISD’s discipline unequal
Despite an investigation, district still punishes black students at higher rates, data reveals
A year after a U.S. Department of Education investigation found Fort Bend ISD disproportionately disciplined black students, data from the Texas Education Agency show the 80,000-student district implemented its harshest penalties on a smaller percentage and a smaller number of black students.
However, the district still disciplines black students at higher rates and numbers than all other students.
Although black students comprise about 28 percent of students in the district, they accounted for more than 50 percent of all students disciplined via at least four of the five types of punishments, which include inschool suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, alternative school placement and juvenile justice placement. It is unknown if the number of black students who were expelled has changed, but data shows between one and five black students were given that punishment. The TEA masks numbers between one and five to avoid helping identify individual students.
Several statewide advocacy groups say those figures show that the district has done little to address the issues highlighted in the Department of Education’s report, which was released last fall.
Andrew Hairston, director of Texas Appleseed’s School-to-Prison Pipeline Project, said the district has caused lasting harm to black students by maintaining its approach to discipline. Texas Appleseed joined Disability Rights Texas, the the Children’s Defense Fund of Texas, the Earl Carl Institute of Texas Southern University and the JCAP of the University of Houston Law Center in sending a letter to Fort Bend ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre and the school board about their concerns last month.
“This requires individual soul searching among top administrators and teachers, also collective action, to really try to push back on these draconian notions of zero tolerance and policing,” Hairston said. “It is really just dealing with young human beings who are trying to explore the complexity of their emotions.”
Fort Bend ISD officials disagree. In a statement, the district pointed to data that show overall discipline rates have plunged since Dupre came to the district in April 2013. The number of stu
dents given out-of-school suspensions was cut in half, from 5,876 in 2011-2012 to 2,891 in 20162017, according to the Texas Education Agency; the number of students given in-school suspensions dropped from 8,420 to 3,595 during the same period.
TEA data shows that while more than 250 more black students were enrolled in Fort Bend schools last year compared to 2017-2018, the number of black students given out-of-school suspensions fell by 212. The number sent to in-school suspensions similarly fell by 324. And even though enrollment among white students fell slightly, more white students were given in-school suspensions and placed at alternative schools last year than the year.
District officials say those rates continue to fall, and gaps between student groups are narrowing, thanks to a new focus on restorative discipline that aims to get to the root of misbehavior.
“We also recognize that we continue to have disproportionate removals of certain groups such as African Americans, Hispanics and students with disabilities,” district officials wrote. “Still, we believe that the interventions, plans and resources that we have in place are effective and will continue to work to improve in order to support students.”
Black students still are punished much more frequently than other students, according to TEA data. For example, about one in 16 black students received out-of-school suspensions last year, compared to one in roughly 69 white students and about one in 33 Hispanic students.
The Oct. 10 letter from the advocacy groups follows up on a findings letter the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights sent Fort Bend ISD in fall 2018 after a six-year investigation into the district’s discipline practices. It found black students were six times more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions than white students and four times as likely to be placed on inschool suspensions.
Federal investigators wrote that a vague student code of conduct left discipline decisions to school administrators, who had a variety of punishments they could use for similar misbehavior. That led to highly variable discipline results, according to the Office of Civil Rights’ letter, which disproportionately left black students with harsher punishments than their peers.
To end the investigation, Fort Bend ISD agreed to a five-point resolution. The district promised to better train staff members responsible for discipline, revamp its record keeping system to foster more uniformity in discipline reporting, and create a team tasked with reviewing discipline data annually, among other things.
Vanesia Johnson, a social worker who created the Citizens Advocating for Social Equity group years ago to address racial disparities in Fort Bend ISD, said there has been a culture shift in the 76,000-student district since the federal investigation. She now chairs the district’s disciplinary committee, which delves into data and proposes new ways to handle misbehavior. Principals no longer have the discretion to send kids to alternative schools. Every teacher was trained in positive behavior interventions over the summer. The districts sends campus leaders disciplinary reports every month so they can hold meetings about school climate and punishment.
Johnson said she did not know if those changes would have been possible without the Office of Civil Rights investigation.
“The OCR complaint set us up for real transformative change, and I’m seeing it,” Johnson said. “Other districts don’t have an OCR report to make them accountable; our district was the target and rightfully so. But they’re all dealing with the same problems.”
Researchers and officials with Texas Appleseed, Disability Rights Texas, the Children’s Defense Fund of Texas, the Earl Carl Institute of Texas Southern University and the JCAP of the University of Houston Law Center said disciplinary issues in Fort Bend ISD remain. For one thing, the advocacy groups wrote, the code of conduct remains vague and staff members responsible for discipline still can choose from a range of options to remedy common misbehaviors. It did not outline or clarify the role school resource officers have in discipline, the groups wrote, and special education committees rarely intervened on behalf of disabled students who were given harsh disciplines.
Hairston said there are several changes the district can make to improve, starting with a revised student code of conduct and the creation of a group comprised of students, parents and community members to provide insight on how to move the district forward. Because those changes were not mandated by the Office of Civil Rights, however, Hairston said the district does not have much incentive to make those lasting changes.
“It requires a cultural shift step away from thinking more security measures and policing will address these issues,” Hairston said. “This zero tolerance approach to conduct is often seen as way to deal with issues kids have in schools.”
Johnson said she sees that changing and disagreed with the advocacy groups’ letter. She wants to see other school districts replicate the changes that have swept across Fort Bend ISD.
“We need to spread this love all the way through” the Houston region, Johnson said. “Fort Bend ISD may be leading the region in best practices.”