A tri-county advocacy group wants to collaborate with educators and the parents of Black preschool children who have been suspended from schools to create culturally responsive policies that keep children in school to thrive.
Impact Stats recently found South Carolina leads the nation in the number of preschool children, ages 2½ to 5 years old, who were suspended from school one or more times. The pre-pandemic data from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights covers the 2017-18 school year, but was the most recent available.
In South Carolina, Black children are overrepresented in the number of preschool children suspended from school. Of the 438 suspended preschoolers 61% of them were Black students, but they make up 39% of the students enrolled in early childhood classrooms in the state’s public schools, according to the report.
Meetings to discuss suspensions
The Beloved Early Education and Care (BEE) Collective will hold a preschoolers’ town hall at 6 p.m. April 12 at Fresh Future Farm in North Charleston. A virtual panel discussion is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. April 18 to discuss preschool suspension solutions. A link to the virtual event will be posted on the BEE Collective’s website.
The meetings coincides with the Charleston Area Justice Ministries’ (CAJM) annual Nehemiah Action Assembly on April 15. CAJM is expected to choose an education-related issue to investigate this year.
Stephanie McFadden, the BEE Collective’s community champion, said the group wants parents of preschoolers to attend the event to share their child’s experience with suspension and “get inspiration knowing groups in Charleston and elsewhere in the country are advocating for them.”
Dr. Melodie Baker, president and CEO of Impact Stats in Buffalo, NY., will join the virtual event on April 18.
Impact Stats analyzed the data as part of an American Heart Association grant-funded study led by the BEE Collective.
A legislative remedy
To address the problem, S.C. Sens. Brad 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. A date for a hearing has not been scheduled.
“We recognize that children at that age don’t need to be suspended from school,” Hutto told the Charleston City Paper. Children need counseling, understanding and educators and legislators should uncover the reasons why children misbehave in school and fix the problem and not suspend the child, he added.
McFadden said she welcomes the legislation, but it does not address the “implicit racial bias, which is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.” Advocacy groups, she said, suspect that implicit racial bias of Black preschool children accounts for the disproportionately higher suspension rate for Black children.
Hutto said he has heard that implicit racial bias is the reason for the state’s high suspension rate. “That is the reason for having the bill introduced so we can get some testimony to see if there is merit in that assertion,” he said.
Expulsion rates for Black children, he explained, gives the appearance that bias is happening “because more young black male students [seem] to be getting suspended” than their peers. “I don’t know if anybody knows the answer right now, but the statistics do point that way,” he said.
A mother’s concerns
Summerville resident Hafeezah Yates, state manager of Save the Children Action Network in South Carolina, said, “I urge our lawmakers to prioritize the well-being of children in the upcoming legislative session. Senate Bill 1108 is an excellent opportunity for them to address the needs of children and their families across our state.”
Yates said her five-year-old son was suspended from preschool and, as a young mother going through a tough divorce, she felt as though she was a failing parent.
“I felt attacked instead of supported; therefore, it is critical for school administrators, teachers and staff to receive training and education on implicit biases, behavioral health services, or speech, occupational, physical, or other therapies,” she said.
“There is no one-size-fits-all solution.” she said. Preschool suspension, she said. is a complex issue and should be treated as such to create “a more equitable and prosperous South Carolina where every child can thrive.”
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