Suspension

Suspension is a disciplinary action that involves removal of a student from his or her usual classroom placement for a period not to exceed 10 consecutive school days. Specific definitions and criteria for determining when suspension is warranted vary from state to state and within individual school districts within each state. There are two primary forms of suspension, outof-school suspension (OSS) and in-school suspension (ISS). In most school districts, OSS prohibits a student from attending school for a maximum of 10 days at a time (with no provision of instructional services), while in-school suspension involves having the student attend an alternative setting (e.g., an in-school suspension classroom, an off-campus alternative-to-suspension site) for a minimum of 1 day (with no interruption of instructional services).

Suspension has been widely used in the United States since the 1930s. The use of suspension (and other exclusionary strategies such as expulsion) grew out of an early 20th-century school discipline paradigm shift away from threats, punishment, and harsh discipline in managing students' behavior; and toward more democratic ideals and strategies. Frequent use of harsh punitive strategies (e.g., paddling) decreased, and educators began to use behavioral strategies such as time-out for minor behavioral infractions, and suspension and expulsion for more serious or chronic behavioral infractions.

The use of suspension as an effective means for managing students' behavior has been questioned. One of the first large-scale reports documenting problems with suspension was published in 1975 by the Children's Defense Fund. Among the problems noted with out-of-school suspension in this report were:

• Missed instruction (often by students who need it the most)
• Labeling of suspended students as troublemakers
• Failure to provide assistance to deal with problems underlying students' misbehavior
• Over-representation of minority students among those suspended

Nonetheless, more than 25 years after the Children's Defense Fund report was published, outof-school suspension continues to be one of the most commonly administered forms of discipline in the United States (Skiba, 2000). Importantly, minority students continue to be grossly over-represented when rates of suspension are compared (Raffaele Mendez and colleagues, 2002). Additionally, it has been noted that suspension may be used by students as an escape from the school environment. Many students who are suspended repeatedly experience school failure and eventually drop out of school.

Recent research shows that more than 3.1 million students nationwide (or 6.84% of the total student population) were suspended in 1997. Proportionally, the highest rates of suspension occur at the middle school and early high school levels, rising steadily from seventh through eighth grades and peaking in ninth grade. It is important to note that, contrary to [Page 555]popular belief, most out-of-school suspensions across the United States are for minor infractions of school rules rather than for dangerous or violent acts. One recent study of more than 100 secondary administrators found that the most common reasons for suspension were defiance of school authority, not reporting to after-school detention or Saturday school, and class disruption. More serious infractions such as weapons possession and narcotics possession typically make up a very small percentage of all infractions resulting in suspension (Raffaele Mendez, 2000; Skiba, 2000).

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