One of the most-discussed civil rights issues in the United States today is the ‘discipline gap’ — disparities between which kids get harsh punishments like suspensions and expulsions and which don’t. The most commonly-cited disparity is racial: black students are suspended three times more often than white students, according to a 2014 civil rights report from the U.S. Department of Education.
Less discussed is the disparity facing disabled students. That same report showed that disabled students are twice as likely to get an out-of-school suspension as non-disabled students. But how does this disparity break down state by state?
To find out more, I used data from the U.S. Department of Education to calculate the percentage of all students with disabilities who got kicked out of class for at least two days during the 2014-15 school year. That includes in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, or any other instance where the child was removed from their normal class for a serious offense.
Pedamagog 