Backlash over kindergarten suspensions prompts bill

NASHVILLE - More than 1,300 Tennessee kindergarten students were suspended last school year.

The number represents barely 1 percent of the state’s 83,000 kindergarten students, according to Tennessee Department of Education data.

But for one Memphis lawmaker, the number begs the questions: Why are 5-year-old kids getting suspended from school in the first place, and what is causing many of them to get on the discipline track so early?

With that question in mind, state Rep. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, proposed legislation this year that prohibits schools from suspending or expelling prekindergarten and kindergarten students unless they engage in violent behavior.

“I brought this bill forward because a lot of times we look at the results of the increased rate of incarceration due to high dropout rates and high rates of African-American suspensions in later grades, but many of those problems start early,” Akbari said.

Surprising to Akbari, the bill has become somewhat controversial. It has received considerable pushback from superintendents across Tennessee and the state’s largest teachers union, which calls the legislation an overstep. The bill has been delayed twice, and Akbari hopes to take the feedback from the groups to improve the legislation, she said.

With the bill expected to be heard Tuesday, the legislator will bring a substantial amendment that will replace the

bill’s language with the creation of a statewide task force to review why students are being suspended or expelled in earlier grades. The task force will look at what is taking place across the state.

“For us it was the first time we had ever to look at the data,” said Jim Wrye, lobbyist for the Tennessee Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. “We would like to find what the recurring instances are and so on.”

Wrye said Akbari has been receptive in helping hear those concerns, and the amendment will help find the root of the numbers, which he said are a concern.

Overall, black students — who total 23,650 of the state’s kindergarten population — make up a large number of the students being suspended in kindergarten, with 830 suspended statewide last school year. White students, who make up 54,400 of the state’s kindergarten students, had half as many suspensions as black students — or 414 students.

The state doesn’t keep numbers for pre-K suspensions.

Studies show that suspended students are more likely to drop out of school, achieve lower scores on standardized tests and are more likely to land in the juvenile justice system.

In Nashville there has been a large movement — called PASSAGE, or Positive and Safe Schools Advancing Greater Equity — to move away from punitive measures for students. Shelby County Schools also has been able cut down on suspensions over the past couple of years.

Recent Vanderbilt University studies in Nashville show teachers with training and support in restorative justice practices saw young children as having fewer behavioral problems.

Shelby County Schools has 9,932 of the state’s kindergarten students and suspended 391 of them in the 2015-16 school year, or about 4 percent of its kids. Nashville suspended far fewer students: 167 of its 8,044 kindergarten students in the same year, or about 2 percent.

Wayne Miller, executive director of the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents, said for districts, the original language of the bill would have been too prescriptive. The organization has worked with Akbari on addressing its concerns, Miller said, and the legislator has been receptive, which helped lead to the change to the bill.

“We don’t feel the bill is going to address what she is trying to address,” Miller said. “I need to emphasize she has been really good to work with and is properly motivated.”

Akbari said the best legislation comes together when all parties listen to others, but she doesn’t expect the issue to go anywhere. She wants to find an alternate route to the suspensions for districts, either this session or in years to come.

“We know the problems this creates down the road,” she said. “Let’s not react, but stop it before it starts.”

The Commercial Appeal of Memphis contributed to this report.

Reach Jason Gonzales at jagonzales@tennessean.com and on Twitter @ByJasonGonzales.