Discipline Reform: The Impact of a Statewide Ban on Suspensions for Truancy

Abstract

Chronic absenteeism and truancy have been linked to a variety of undesirable outcomes for students including increased risk of dropout, lower test scores, lower educational and social engagement, juvenile delinquency, and substance abuse. One controversial response to truancy is the use of exclusionary discipline, such as out-of-school suspensions (OSS). Out of concern that such a practice is counter-intuitive and likely not effective at improving student engagement or academic outcomes, some states have recently banned this practice altogether. This analysis uses Arkansas as a case study to estimate the impact of a state-level ban on the use of OSS for truancy on attendance—an important measure related to student engagement and opportunity to learn. Using an eight-year panel of student-level data in a difference-in-differences framework, we find no evidence of improvement in attendance for truant students. Implications for policy design, implementation, and evaluation are discussed.

Notes

1 We exclude the Arkansas Virtual Academy, a virtual charter school open to all students across the state, and the Division of Youth Services schools.

2 “Other” non-specified consequences were coded as a particular type of consequence at the school level, but when combined and reported by the state, they are grouped into an “other” category.

3 Schools that report no truancy serve a similar share of black students (20% in the average school with no truancy, compared to 21% for the average school in the state), and tend to be only slightly poorer than the state average (the average school with no truancy is 66–67% FRL instead of 64–65% for the average school in the state).

4 National suspension and expulsion rates were calculated using the 2011–12 and 2013–14 Office for Civil Rights National Estimations (see https://ocrdata.ed.gov/StateNationalEstimations/Estimations_2011_12 and https://ocrdata.ed.gov/StateNationalEstimations/Estimations_2013_14) and the National Center for Education Statistics (see https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_203.20.asp).