Preschool Expulsions Target Black Children, Increase Criminal Justice System Involvement
Several studies show that more needs to be done to prevent preschool expulsions that result from racial bias and lead to future problems.
Landwebs
While President Joe Biden’s $200 billion American Families Plan would benefit 5 million children and be a boon to working parents who sorely need better child care and pre-K options, youngsters and families won’t reap any benefit if children are kicked out of school for misbehavior — fighting, hitting or even biting — that is all too common in small children, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Some 17,000 3- and 4-year-olds are expelled from preschools every year. Harsh discipline against 3- and 4-year-olds sets children up for educational failure later on, research shows. Children who are suspended or expelled as preschoolers are more likely to be expelled later on, to drop out and to become involved in the criminal justice system. 40 percent of expelled preschoolers are Black, though Black children compose just 18 percent of preschool enrollment.
A 2005 Yale study found that preschoolers were expelled at rates three times higher than students in K-12 education. Black children were about twice as likely to be expelled as Latino or white children. A 2016 study revealed that implicit bias is to blame for these kinds of glaring racial disparities when, using eye-tracking equipment, the researchers found that teachers spent more time watching and monitoring the behavior of boys than girls — but Black boys were watched and monitored more often than any other group. More training is needed, both to root out racial bias and give teachers more skills to manage misbehavior in general
