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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Founded in 1996 by former Harvard professors Gary Orfield and Christopher Edley, Jr., the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles is now co-directed by Orfield and Patricia Gándara, professors at UCLA. Its mission is to create a new generation of research in social science and law, on the critical issues of civil rights and equal opportunity for racial and ethnic groups in the United States. It has commissioned more than 400 studies, published 14 books and issued numerous reports from authors at universities and research centers across the country. The U.S. Supreme Court, in its 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger decision upholding affirmative action, and in Justice Breyer’s dissent (joined by three other Justices) to its 2007 Parents Involved in Community Schools decision, cited the Civil Rights Project’s research.

Cover page of Update to Lost Instruction Time in California Schools

Update to Lost Instruction Time in California Schools

(2024)

Many educators in California are unaware of just how harmful out of school suspensions can be. When suspended students are barred from attending school, more often than not, the rule broken was some form of minor misconduct. This update of "Lost Instruction Time in California Schools" demonstrates that despite the important efforts by the state of California to reduce suspensions, those efforts are seriously insufficient.

Cover page of Lost Instruction Time in California Schools: The Disparate Harm from Post-Pandemic Punitive Suspensions

Lost Instruction Time in California Schools: The Disparate Harm from Post-Pandemic Punitive Suspensions

(2023)

What we don’t know about school discipline and discipline disparities may be hurting the very students who most need a stable school life. The consequences of a suspension can be grave for any child, but the potential for causing extreme harm to foster and homeless youth is rarely considered by educators who punish these children by removing them from school. The uncertain living circumstances for these children are further destabilized when educators deny them access to school for breaking a school rule. The data on lost instruction due to out-of-school suspensions (OSSs) show that students with precarious living situations—foster and homeless youth of all racial/ ethnic groups—are punished far more than most other groups. This report provides a detailed review of how suspensions directly contribute to disparities in learning opportunities for students in these two groups, and along the lines of race and disability in every California school district.

  • 2 supplemental ZIPs
Cover page of Unmasking School Discipline Disparities in California:  What the 2019-2020 Data Can Tell Us About Problems and Progress

Unmasking School Discipline Disparities in California:  What the 2019-2020 Data Can Tell Us About Problems and Progress

(2022)

We hope this report will help to renew attention to the problem of excessive discipline. In keeping with this aim, we compare the projected full-year suspension rate for 2019-2020 to rates from prior years. We provide these projected suspension rates for the overall student population in California, and for every racial/ethnic subgroup at the state and district levels. We encourage education policymakers at the state and district levels to use the projections we provide in this report to distinguish districts that were on the path toward lower suspension rates from those on a path toward an increase or that showed no change.

  • 2 supplemental ZIPs

Disabling Inequity: The Urgent Need for Race-Conscious Resource Remedies

(2021)

Among the most critical pre-pandemic inequities that have not received sufficient attention is the fact that many districts are not meeting their legal and moral obligation to educate students with disabilities, which must include providing needed mental health services, behavioral supports and educationally sound interventions by well qualified staff. This report reveals serious pre-existing conditions of inadequate support that are likely to be exacerbated by the current pandemic, summarizes the pandemic’s disparate impact, which is resulting in greater losses of instructional time amidst increasing experiences of trauma, and argues for additional post-pandemic steps to ensure that all students with disabilities needing supports and services must receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to have those needs met, and that they are not excluded because of behaviors caused by their disability.

Cover page of The Striking Outlier: The Persistent, Painful and Problematic Practice of Corporal Punishment in Schools

The Striking Outlier: The Persistent, Painful and Problematic Practice of Corporal Punishment in Schools

(2019)

This report examines only the data (students populations and paddling incidents) from schools where corporal punishment is used. The report relies on data from the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), primarily from the 2013-14 school year. In schools where corporal punishment is practiced, black students and students with disabilities are more likely to be struck than white students and those without disabilities.

Cover page of The Unequal Impact of Suspension on the Opportunity to Learn in CA

The Unequal Impact of Suspension on the Opportunity to Learn in CA

(2018)

In 2016-17, schoolchildren in California lost an estimated 763,690 days of instruction time, a figure based on the combined total of 381,845 in-school suspensions (ISS) and out-of-school suspensions (OSS). This is an updated report on CA suspension practice.