Panelists discuss student discipline disparities in West Virginia

CHARLESTON -- Student discipline disparities in West Virginia public schools was the topic Monday morning of an online panel discussion.

The West Virginia State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held a virtual briefing meeting on how to reform the student discipline process, which some believe unfairly targets students from low-income families, racial minorities, sexual orientation, gender identity, and students with disabilities.

Monday's panelists were the Rev. Matthew Watts, CEO of Hope Community Development Corp. in Charleston; Teresa McCune, senior counsel for the Public Defender 30th Judicial Circuit in Mingo County; and Shanequa Smith, the founder of Restorative Practices in Charleston.

Monday's briefing is the second time the State Advisory Committee has focused on student discipline disparities. The committee held a hearing in December focused on discipline disparities in public schools.

"Today and in future days we will take testimony and engage in conversations with experts that will educate and inform the committee about West Virginia's specific school discipline data and information," said Lisa K. Younis, chair of the State Advisory Committee.

Senate Bill 723, passed by the Legislature in 2020, required the Department of Education to look at statewide data on school disciplinary actions and develop a plan to reduce the number of disciplinary actions. The department is required to submit a report to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability every two years.

Data on disparities was released last July by the Department of Education during legislative interim meetings. The report looked at five years of data beginning with the 2017-2018 school year. According to the report's data, Black students made up 4 percent of the student population in the 2021-2022 school year, but made up 10 percent of all disciplinary referrals. That percentage has stayed mostly steady over the last five school years.

Broken down by severity levels with level 1 being least severe and level 4 being most severe, 10.9 percent of level 1 referrals were Black students and 7.8 percent of level 4 referrals were Black students. According to the report, 9.4 percent of all in-school suspensions in 2021-2022 were Black students, while 9.8 percent of all out-of-school suspensions were Black students.

Out of 170,188 actions and interventions in 2021-2022, there were 52,355 actions involving detention, 32,613 incidents resulted in in-school suspensions, 30,011 resulted in out-of-school suspension, 386 resulted in alternative education placement, 157 resulted in expulsion and 54,666 were listed as "other interventions."

Several factors are driving harsher student discipline policies in West Virginia schools, McCune said.

These include zero tolerance policies that often target children with minor offenses with suspensions and expulsions. McCune cited as an example a case where a young student was expelled for accidentally bringing a pocket knife to school.

"Just like that, he was suspended and expelled and his whole future, which could have been so bright because of his intelligence and his athleticism and just because of what a good kid he was, got thrown off track," McCune said. "No matter what happens, no matter what caused it or how many layers of trauma are on the child, they can be treated harshly for even what a lot of people would think are minor offenses. It doesn't make schools safer; it just pushes out students into the criminal justice system."

McCune also cited other issues adding to the student discipline issue, including implicit bias on the part of teachers and administrators who may not be aware of their own prejudices; lack of resources and training for teachers and staff and lack of accountability and transparency.

Some officials and Black leaders remained unhappy with last year's Department of Education student discipline report. Watts said the July report was too broad and didn't provide school-level data needed to target schools with the largest disparities. The department also did not release any plan to address disparity issues as required by the new law.

"They released a report, but they did not develop a plan in terms of how school discipline would be addressed, and the Legislative Oversight Commission never asked them for the plan. Until this date, there has been no plan developed or any request to the Department of Education for that plan," Watts said. "There has been much talk, conversation, and discussion about school discipline in West Virginia, but there has been little in definitive actions taken to address the problem."

To address these complaints, Superintendent of Schools David Roach said in December that the department would expand the scope of the original data report, as well as release a plan to address the disparity issue. Younis said that in an emailed explanation, Deputy Superintendent of Schools Michelle Blatt said that state officials must submit their disciplinary report and corrective plan to the state Board of Education before discussing them publicly, declining to participate in Monday's briefing.

"Let me mention how disappointed we are that the West Virginia state Education Department officials declined the committee's invitation to testify about disciplinary data, policies, procedures, and practices, including training," Younis said. "The committee looks forward to the testimony of the deputy superintendents and other officials and will submit to them questions from this briefing record."

At the beginning of the 2023 session of the West Virginia Legislature, Watts and the Tuesday Morning Group, an organization focused on economic and social justice issues, wanted to see the law created by SB 723 amended, requiring the Department of Education to report progress on addressing disparities annually to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability. They also want disparity reports presented to LOCEA during every legislative interim meeting.

Instead, lawmakers passed House Bill 2890, modifying student discipline. The bill allows teachers in grades six through 12 to exclude students from the classroom who are disorderly, interfering in the educational process, or obstructing a teacher from their classrooms for the remainder of the school day. The school principal must be informed by the teacher within 24 hours of the disciplinary action, with the teacher required to submit an electronic record of the incident within 24 hours.

If a student is removed from the classroom three times or more in a one-month period, it would count as an in-school suspension and could be put into an alternative learning center if one is available. The bill requires county boards of education to develop a tiered system with teacher input to develop a framework for student behaviors and punishments. It also protects the teacher from punishment as long as their actions fall within the law and the new tiered system for student behavior and punishment.

Smith said public schools need to take a different approach to student discipline, focused on restorative practices. Instead of using punishments, such as suspensions and expulsions, restorative practices focus on teacher-led and peer mediation when students act out, talking privately with students instead of scolding them publicly, and using counselors to work with students and parents.

"We know that we must come together to not only keep looking at the problem but educate those in power to teach them why they must use different mechanisms and take different approaches to addressing this issue also in the community," Smith said. "With restorative practices, this is a way for us to not only build our community but restore our community."