While the “one-size-fits-all” zero tolerance policy was adopted by a large number of schools after the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, it has now become a way to punish students for infractions as large as carrying a weapon to school to as minor as being tardy to class. Between 1974 and 2000, K-12 public school suspensions increased 82.3% from 1.73 million to 3.1 million, with 95% of these suspensions being for nonviolent misbehavior. There is little evidence to support that the zero tolerance policy is making schools safer. Rather, the overuse of suspensions and expulsions can increase the likelihood of future criminal activity. 

Problems with the Zero Tolerance Policy

- Zero tolerance policies tend to disproportionately affect students of color, ESL students, students with disabilities, and LGBT students. 
- Black students with disabilities are 4 times more likely to receive multiple suspensions than white students with disabilities.
- Black students with disabilities are 2 times more likely to be expelled than white students with disabilities.
- Black girls with disabilities had a 44% chance to be suspended multiple times in comparison to girls with disabilities of any other ethnicity. 
- Native American students with disabilities represent only 1% of the student population, but are 3.5 times more likely to receive multiple suspensions compared to white students with disabilities.
- Native American students with disabilities are 3 times more likely to be expelled than white students with disabilities.
- Students with disabilities are 2 times as likely to be suspended compared to students without disabilities. 

Biases in the Zero Tolerance Policy

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.  

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

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

The School-to-Prison Pipeline

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

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.

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