Student Arrests at School: Statistics, Disparities, and Long-Term Consequences

The presence of law enforcement in schools, particularly elementary schools, and the subsequent arrest of students, has become a topic of increasing scrutiny and concern. While the intention behind having officers in schools is to ensure safety, data reveals a complex reality marked by disparities in the application of discipline and potential long-term negative consequences for students. This article delves into the statistics surrounding student arrests, explores the disparities affecting students of color and those with disabilities, examines the impact of school suspension policies, and discusses the need for alternative approaches to student discipline.

Arrests and Referrals in Elementary Schools

Newly released data analyzed by CBS News indicates that more than 100 children were arrested at elementary schools during the 2020-2021 school year. While this number is lower than in previous years, likely due to remote learning during the pandemic, the data also revealed approximately 3,500 "referrals to law enforcement" in elementary schools alone. Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, expressed her distress at these figures, emphasizing the negative impact such experiences can have on young children.

It's important to consider that the data published on Nov. 15 represents the only national survey of civil rights at schools in the country. It highlights various disparities experienced by students of color and students with disabilities, encompassing access to advanced curriculum, internet availability, and school discipline.

Disparities in Arrest Rates

The data consistently reveal significant disparities in arrest rates based on race and disability. CBS News reported on arrests in elementary schools using similar data from the 2017-2018 school year, counting more than 700 arrests in grades 1 through 5. That data showed children with disabilities in elementary school were 4 times more likely to be arrested at school than those without disabilities. This latest data shows similar disparities: those with disabilities such as ADHD or autism were still four times more likely to be arrested at school. The same was true for students of color, who were arrested at more than twice the rate of white students.

A school district found that students' race and ethnicity, gender, and disability status were all prominent with respect to rates of arrest and referrals to police, especially when the characteristics intersected. Specifically, in school year 2017-2018, the most recent year of data prior to the pandemic, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Black, and American Indian/Alaska Native students were arrested at rates that were two to three times higher than White students.

The GAO's analysis also showed that arrest rates more than doubled in schools with police present compared to similar schools without police. This raises concerns about the potential for over-policing and the disproportionate impact on certain student populations.

The Impact of School Suspension

School suspension is used widely, affects many students, and begins as early as preschool. Over a K-12 school career, 35% of students are suspended at least once; among Black students, 67% of males and 45% of females are suspended. School suspension increased in prevalence beginning with the 1994 federal Gun-Free Schools Act, which mandated that states adopt zero-tolerance policies that punish students who have weapons in school with at least 1-year suspension. Subsequent “zero tolerance” policies at state and local levels mandated suspension for possession of illegal drugs; possession of over-the-counter drugs, including ibuprofen and cough drops; and subjective offenses such as “insubordination” (Skiba & Knesting, 2001).

While school suspensions aim to improve behavior and maintain school norms, studies have shown mixed results. Some studies find that suspension accomplishes these aims. Suspension removes disruptive students from schools temporarily (Cook, Gottfredson, & Na, 2010; Kinsler, 2013) and may improve school climate and by reducing peer influences to engage in deviant behavior (Zimmerman, 2014). Other studies have found that suspended students are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior, have involvement with the criminal justice system, and are less likely to complete school in both the short and long-term. Youth are more likely to be arrested both during the month of suspension (Monahan, VanDerhei, Bechtold, & Cauffman, 2014) and within a year of suspension (Hemphill, Toumbourou, Herrenkohl, McMorris, & Catalano, 2006).

In a 13-year national longitudinal survey, youth suspended for at least 10 days were less likely to graduate high school and more likely to be arrested and incarcerated by the end of the study (ages 26-31) (Shollenberger, 2015).

School suspension is characterized by racial disparities, and suspension’s racial disparities may increase educational disparities. The White-Black disparity has declined for achievement but increased for suspensions, especially among secondary students: from 1972 to 2012, the proportion of all students suspended for at least one day increased from 3% to 5% for White students (6% to 7% for secondary students) and from 6% to 16% for Black students (12% to 23% for secondary students) (Losen, Hodson, Morrison, & Belway, 2015; Wald & Losen, 2003). Racial disparities in suspension are problematic in themselves but also predict racial disparities in school completion. One nationally representative study found that much of the widening of the Black-White high school drop-out gap between 1979 and 1997 can be explained by school suspension (Suh, Malchow, & Suh, 2014).

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The American Psychological Association, American Association of Pediatrics, and American Bar Association have criticized zero tolerance school suspension policies for potentially reducing educational attainment, harming employment prospects, increasing risk behavior, and increasing criminal justice involvement (American Association of Pediatrics Committee on School Health, 2003; Lamont et al., 2013; Reynolds et al., 2008) and for creating injustice through mandatory minimum sentences that do not permit judicial discretion (American Bar Association, 2001). Legal scholars claim that zero tolerance school suspension deprives students of their right to equal access to education (Bitner, 2015).

Alternatives to Suspension

In place of out-of school-suspension, the American Association of Pediatrics recommends Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (Lamont et al., 2013) because initial studies suggest that schools can replace suspension with positive reinforcement and a larger range of consequences for misbehavior (Cook et al., 2010). Evidence of the negative impacts of school suspension (Fabelo, Thompson, Plotkin, Carmichael, & Booth, 2011) prompted the federal Supportive School Discipline Initiative in 2011, which promotes alternatives to suspension.

Long-Term Consequences of Suspension and Arrest

Suspended students may comply with rules in the short term, but suspension may create long-term secondary deviance due to the social ramifications of suspension, such as labeling, stigma, limiting options, or creating separation. These social ramifications result in further deviance that magnifies the impact of the initial deviance. The secondary deviance hypothesis is supported by qualitative evidence that suspended students and their parents/caregivers report feeling more disengaged from school after suspension, and students report that they did not improve their behavior after suspension (Gibson & Haight, 2013; Michail, 2012). Secondary deviance may be more enduring deviance that may not have occurred otherwise, even if the initial deviance were minor, not premeditated, or a one-time experiment (Becker, 1963; Lemert, 1967; Paternoster & Iovanni, 1989). Recent research finds that youth who are arrested or stopped by police are more likely to engage in secondary deviance as a result of labeling (Liberman, Kirk, & Kim, 2014; Wiley, Slocum, & Esbensen, 2013).

GAO Recommendations for Improving Data Collection

The GAO is making three recommendations that Education: (1) collect arrest and referral data, by race, for students with disabilities who receive services under Section 504; (2) disclose the limitations of its 2021-2022 arrest data; and (3) clearly inform school districts about future changes to arrest and referral data in its civil rights data collection.

Specifically:

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The Secretary of Education should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of the Office for Civil Rights revise the Civil Rights Data Collection to collect arrest and referral data, by race, for students with disabilities served under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended.
The Secretary of Education should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of the Office for Civil Rights take necessary steps to disclose the known limitation in its arrest data for the 2021-2022 school year Civil Rights Data Collection.
The Secretary of Education should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of the Office for Civil Rights clearly communicate any future changes to data on arrests and referrals to law enforcement in the Civil Rights Data Collection before the start of the school year for which districts are to collect data.

Education agreed with these recommendations.

The Role of Police in Schools

Studies analyzing the effects of school police on student arrest rates are scarce and often restricted to small samples, making results hard to generalize. The GAO also performed a descriptive analysis of SSCS information, finding consistent results: In SY 2017-18, 29 percent of schools with police experienced one or more arrests, compared to 8 percent of schools without them.

However, the report did not conclude whether adding police was associated with schools becoming safer, which is the goal of police presence in schools.

A major problem is an unclear line between school administrators’ roles and police officers’ authority. Having officers on campus removes geographical barriers for administrators to consult police on disciplinary issues, especially when a part of an officer’s role is to respond to conflict. But when officers handle misconduct in schools with arrests, it can diminish arrested students’ ability to go to college, buy a home, or receive a job offer. School administrators handling misconduct does not.

Additionally, over-policing can be counterproductive in establishing positive relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Predictive Policing and Student Profiling

For example, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office created an intelligence-led policing protocol using SROs to “look to identify students who are at risk of developing into prolific offenders,” which they define in part as students with one or more D’s, behind by one credit to graduate, or absent three to four times in a quarter. Labeling students using predictive measures undermines the presumption of innocence, shares unnecessary confidential information, and could make students less likely to trust authority figures at school.

Accountability and Qualified Immunity

Police violence is a broader issue facilitated by weak accountability and reinforced by qualified immunity, which prohibits citizens from suing officers unless a prior case with identical facts found that an officer’s actions were unconstitutional. Indeed, qualified immunity has been used to protect school police from liability for breaking a student’s arm when the student was having an emotional episode and punched a locker, and for tasing a student with a disability when they attempted to leave school. In both cases, school staff would have been better suited to respond and avoid unnecessary harm to students.

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