Zero tolerance discipline policies focus on punitive measures against disruptive or violent student misbehavior through methods like suspension or expulsion, rather than using preventive measures to correct behavioral infractions.  

Zero Tolerance Policy

- At least 73% of individuals who drop out of school are arrested within 5 years of doing so. 
- 70% of prison inmates have not completed high school.
- 75% of minors sentenced to adult prisons have not completed the 10th grade. 
- In the juvenile justice system, 70% have been identified as having learning disabilities, and 33% have a reading level below 4th grade. 
- 68% of juveniles placed in prison systems are people of color. 

Suspensions, Disability, and the American Prison System

High-poverty schools and schools where at least half of the student population are non-white have the highest percentage of police presence on campus. Students who attend schools with at least one dedicated officer on campus are 5 times more likely to receive criminal charges for “disorderly conduct.” There is little evidence to suggest that police presence on campus reduces school violence.

Police Presence in Schools

Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS), Restorative Justice, and teacher training programs are all seen as viable alternatives to the zero tolerance policy.

Alternatives to the Zero Tolerance Policy

Students of color with disabilities are disproportionately more likely to end up in the American prison system. 

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Minority overrepresentation in special education has been a topic of debate since the 1960s, when sociologists estimated that 60-80% of students identified with disabilities were of low socioeconomic status or were of an ethnic minority. 

The Links Between Socioeconomic Status, Race, and Special Education

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, “Beyond Suspensions: Examining School Discipline Policies and Connections to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students of Color with Disabilities” by Catherine E. Lhamon, July 2019, https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/2019/07-23-Beyond-Suspensions.pdf


Beyond Suspensions: Examining School Discipline Policies and Connections to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students of Color with Disabilities

In the absence of “hard disabilities” such as blindness or deafness, teachers are often responsible for marking students for possible “soft disabilities”, like learning disabilities. This is often done by comparing individual student performance to the normal distribution curve of academic performance within their classrooms. Teachers will refer students performing significantly below their peers by learning and behavioral standards to be evaluated for potential disabilities. 


Teachers’ Roles in Determining Disabilities in Students

In the United States, the white middle class is used as the educational reference point for which all students are compared. This inherently disadvantages students who are POC or of low socioeconomic status, as cultural differences may “mark” these students as having academic and behavioral problems that go against the accepted norm — therefore making them more likely to be placed in special education. 


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