School Suspension Project

Focus Areas: K-12 Education

The purpose of the School Suspension Project is to describe patterns in school suspensions in Kansas City, Missouri, elementary and middle schools.

We examined citywide trends in school suspensions between 2014-2015 and 2017-2018 in Kansas City, Missouri, focusing particularly on disproportionality in school suspension rates by gender and race. As in many U.S. cities, we found that schools in Kansas City suspend males and African American students at much higher rates than other groups of students. UERC partners for this project are Turn the Page KC and the Kansas City, Missouri, mayor’s office. In working with these partners, we have contributed to conversations among educators and policymakers about disproportionality in school suspensions by convening a citywide “Suspension Summit” and by disseminating custom reports of suspension data to more than 50 schools.