South Carolina leads the nation in the number of preschool children, ages 2½ to 5 years old, who are suspended from school one or more times. Black students received two-thirds of the suspensions imposed on early learners, according to a federal government report.
The state’s Black preschool suspension rate of 436 students is nearly twice the 262 suspensions in Texas, which has six times more people than the Palmetto State.
Black children statewide make up 61% of the early learners who’ve received one or more suspensions, but they are only 1939% of the preschoolers enrolled in early childhood classrooms in the state’s public schools, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights for the 2017-18 school year, the most recent years available.
- EDITOR’S NOTE: Correction appended at bottom of this story.
Impact Stats, a Buffalo, N.Y., research firm, analyzed the data as part of an American Heart Association grant-funded study led by the tri-county’s Beloved Early Education and Care (BEE) Collective.
Dr. Melodie Baker, president and CEO of Impact Stats, said in an interview that researchers suspect implicit racial bias of Black preschool children accounts for the disproportionately higher suspension rate for Black children.
“Black children are perceived as older, less innocent, more prone to aggression and more deserving of harsher punishment compared to their non-Black peers,” she said.
Suspended preschoolers are 10 times more likely to struggle to learn, which raises the high school dropout rate and the state’s prison population, Baker explained. “Disadvantaged children are more likely to be suspended,” she said. “But all children deserve high-quality early childhood education to thrive regardless of their background.”
S.C. Sens. Bradley Hutto, D-Orangeburg, Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington and Mike Reichenbach, R-Florence, filed Senate Bi1l 1108 on Feb. 28 to provide for education and training for school administrators, teachers and staff to require efforts toward maintaining student enrollment and to provide for relevant data collection of school suspensions and expulsions. It has been referred to the Senate Education Committee.
The senators filed the bill after several state agencies and child advocacy groups testified in mid-January before the Joint Citizens and Legislative Committee on Children in Columbia on the need to keep children in school, even when they misbehave.
South Carolina data challenge
Impact Stats reviewed suspension data in the S.C. Department of Education’s School Report Card for 2019-2023. The researchers faced a challenge in interpreting the state report, Baker said, because it is not reported by race. To estimate the number of suspended Black children in Charleston County schools, the researchers did a limited review of 12 13 North Charleston schools that have predominantly Black enrollments.
During the 2022-23 school year, Charleston County schools reported 805 suspensions with early childhood programs, Baker said. But the 12 13 North Charleston schools with the highest enrollment of black students reported 361 369 suspensions, which is nearly half of the suspensions at the district’s 42 schools with early childhood programs.
Andy Pruitt, director of communications for the Charleston County School District (CCSD), said the district is aware of the inequities that have existed historically in “our system, including in our discipline rates among and between student groups.”
On the state level, the S.C. Department of Education’s (SCDE) Office of Student Support “has hosted several behavioral intervention sessions,” said Jason Raven, the agency’s director of media relations.
Community coalitions
The YWCA of Greater Charleston, served as the hub agency to bring the BEE Collective, a tri-county birthing, early childhood and healing justice organization, and two other advocacy groups — Charleston Hope and the E3 Foundation — together for a Heart Association’s Voices for Healthy Kids grant to support equitable learning policies.
The YWCA serves as the hub agency for the three groups that are seeking solutions to systemic education and mental health issues that affect learning.
C.J. Gathers, the YWCA’s director of programs, said the advocacy groups plan to submit a report to the Charleston County School Board in September.
Charleston County School District Board member Daron Lee Calhoun II of West Ashley said the district has seen “positive reflections” in schools that use progressive discipline plans and teacher training to lower suspensions.
Before the YWCA’s community conversations began, the BEE Collective said it suspected through community meetings in 2018 that black and disabled children could be overrepresented in preschool suspensions, according to Dr. Kim Nesta Archung, a BEE Collective co-founder.
Charleston Area Justice Ministries convinced Charleston County schools three years ago to implement a restorative justice practice plan after it found that elementary through high school students of color are ten times more likely to be suspended from school.
Dr. Elise Davis-McFarland, co-chair of CAJM’s education steering committee, told the City Paper “we didn’t have any idea about the preschool [data]. I am not surprised. We see that trend continues into the higher grades.”
Pruitt said CCSD’s restorative practices in many of the district’s schools “fosters an equitable and positive school culture and focuses on repairing and strengthening relationships and connections within school communities.”
CCSD’s early learning department, Pruitt said, has focused its efforts on reducing exclusionary practices with preschool children. “This year, CCSD rolled out the Prevent Teach and Reteach (PTR) Guide in lieu of the progressive discipline plan for students under five years old.
“Our commitment to all students is to work toward identifying the root causes of a student’s behavior and to ensure that adults are well-equipped to respond appropriately,” he said.
CORRECTION: A chart that accompanied a March 15 printed version of this Charleston City Paper story on preschool expulsions in South Carolina should have been labeled “Suspensions in predominantly Black North Charleston elementary schools for the 2020-2023 school period.” Black children statewide make up 61% of the early learners who’ve received one or more suspensions, but they are only 39% of the preschoolers enrolled in early childhood classrooms in the state’s public schools, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights for the 2017-18 school year, the most recent years available.
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