Policing in Schools: All young people should feel safe and welcomed in schools.

Insights & Analyses

  • In the 2017–18 school year, schools nationally recorded 7.5 arrests and 34.8 referrals to law enforcement per 10,000 students.
  • Black and Pacific Islander male high school students had the highest rates of arrests in the nation, while Black and Native American male students were disproportionately referred to law enforcement.
  • Hawaiʻi, the 40th most populous state, had the highest school-based arrest rate (36.3 per 10,000 students), nearly ten times California’s rate (3.6 per 10,000), despite the latter’s far larger student population as the most populous state. 
  • Black female high school students in Alabama experienced the highest rates of arrests and referrals across nearly all grade levels and school settings.
  • Disparities persist across classroom sizes: Black students faced the most referrals regardless of class size; Pacific Islander students experienced the highest arrest rates in larger classrooms, whereas Native American students led arrest rates in smaller classrooms.

Drivers of Inequity

Students of color are more likely to attend schools with more contact with law enforcement, whether through school-based arrests or referrals to law enforcement. Black, Latinx, and Native American youth, in particular, face disproportionate levels of police contact, heightened hyper-surveillance, and punitive disciplinary actions in schools and in their communities. Schools’ reliance on vaguely defined punitive discipline practices such as “willful defiance” compounds these disparities, as the rule is disproportionately applied to Black students and students with disabilities. Removing students from the classroom under such policies interrupts learning and widens racial gaps in educational attainment.

Strategies

Grow an equitable economy: Policies to help all youth succeed

  • Reform harsh, "zero tolerance" school discipline policies to keep youth in school and on track to graduate.
  • Remove law enforcement officers from elementary and secondary schools and invest instead in counselors and support staff.
  • End out-of-school suspension for chronic absenteeism and eliminate tickets for truancy and other low-level offenses that disproportionately burden low-income families.  
  • Ban corporal punishment and prone restraint in all schools.
  • Prohibit “willful defiance” suspensions across grades and eliminate any in- or out-of-school suspension for young students in kindergarten through third grade..
  • Implement multiple measures to define and track student attendance, including excused absences, to identify schools and students in need of additional support and engagement strategies.
  • Strengthen Title IX enforcement and revise codes of conduct to include clear, equity-focused language on race, gender, and sex equity, including updated dress codes and student-focused responses to sexual harassment and assault.
  • Fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to provide adequate resources for students with disabilities and minimize lost instructional time—an inequity that disproportionately affects students of color with disabilities..
  • Use restorative justice practices in place of punishments to prioritize student well-being and in-class instruction time.

Strategy in Action

The Los Angeles chapter of the Dignity in Schools Campaign rallied students, families, educators, and community groups to replace disruptive, punitive suspensions with restorative practices that keep students—especially Black and Latinx youth—learning in the classroom with dignity. Their advocacy pushed Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the nation’s second-largest district to adopt a 2013 School Discipline Policy and School Climate Bill of Rights, banning suspensions and expulsions for vague “willful defiance” infractions. This reform expanded on LAUSD’s 2007 implementation of School Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) as part of a district-wide Discipline Foundation Policy, which increased transparency of discipline data, hired more counselors, trained staff in restorative justice, and expanded extracurricular programs.

Expulsions and suspensions for all offenses—including fights, weapons, and drugs—plummeted as a result. Citing these years of success, statewide coalitions secured Senate Bill 419  (2024), extending the ban on “willful defiance” suspensions to every K-12 classroom in California. Advocates now urge districts nationwide to adopt similar evidence-based reforms that keep students—particularly Black and Latinx youth—in class and on track. Learn more.

Photo: Courtesy of Community Asset Development Re-defining Education (CADRE) 

Resources

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