Exploring Disproportionate Discipline for Latinx Students With and Without Disabilities: A National Analysis

Abstract

The Latinx population is the largest group of racially and ethnically diverse students in the United States. Although disproportionality in school discipline has been documented for Latinx students, findings related to such disparities have been inconsistent. We examined disciplinary exclusion practices involving students with and without disabilities who are Latinx across the United States using risk ratios (RR) and weighted mixed-effect models. We leveraged data from the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) data set for the 2015 to 2016 academic school year, which included data from more than 94,000 schools. The CRDC is collected by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights every 2 years. All U.S. public schools are required to submit data to the CRDC. Results suggest that Latinx students with and without disabilities were statistically significantly more likely to receive exclusionary discipline than White students, but less likely than Black students. Implications for research and practice are provided.