A state Senate bill seeking to keep kids in California’s classrooms by prohibiting the suspension of public school students for low-level behavior issues known as “willful defiance” is now in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hands after clearing both the state Assembly and Senate.
Senate Bill 274, or the “Keep Kids in School” bill, proposed by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, passed the state Assembly on a vote of 61-13, and won approval in the Senate on a 32-6 vote. The bill is now headed to the governor’s desk, the senator’s office announced.
“Suspending students, no matter what the age, fails to improve student behavior and greatly increases the likelihood that the student will fail classes or drop out of school completely,” Skinner said in a statement.
“SB 274 puts the needs of students first. Instead of kicking them out of school, we owe it to students to help them succeed,” the senator added.
Causing a commotion
According to Skinner’s office, willful defiance suspensions tend to be levied for low-level disruptions, such as a student wearing a hat backward, falling asleep in class, or talking back to a teacher.
Additionally, the suspensions have been disproportionately directed at students of color, LGBTQ students, students who are homeless or in foster care, and those with disabilities, the senator’s office said.
SB 274 builds on Senate Bill 419, proposed by Skinner in 2019 and signed into law by the governor to permanently ban willful defiance suspensions in grades TK-5 and prohibit them in grades 6-8 until 2025.
“Suspending students, no matter what the age, fails to improve student behavior and greatly increases the likelihood that the student will fail classes or drop out of school completely.” Sen. Nancy Skinner
Under SB 274, willful defiance suspensions would be barred in grades 6-12, with a sunset of July 1, 2029, in all California public schools.
In addition, under SB 274, teachers would be able to remove a student from a specific class for unruly behavior, but the youth would not be suspended from school. Instead, it would be up to school administrators to determine appropriate and timely in-school interventions or support for the student.
SB 274 would apply to both traditional public schools and charter schools. It would also bar schools from suspending or expelling students for being tardy or truant.
SB 274 is sponsored by a large coalition of education and civil rights advocates, including more than 50 organizations statewide, Skinner’s office said.
What studies have shown
According to the 2018 report “Get Out! Black Male Suspensions in California Public Schools,” suspensions for willful defiance represented 21 percent of all suspensions of Black male students in California middle schools. In high schools, it was 26 percent.
African-American male students in California schools are three times more likely to be suspended for willful defiance than the statewide average, the senator’s office said.
Meanwhile, according to a 2014 Johns Hopkins University study, “Sent Home and Put Off-Track,” “being suspended even once in 9th grade is associated with a two-fold increase in the risk for dropping out.”
A number of California school districts have eliminated willful defiance suspensions during the past decade, including Oakland, San Francisco and Pasadena. A 2019 report found that after Los Angeles Unified eliminated willful defiance suspensions in grades K-8, suspensions overall plummeted by 75 percent.
“The punishment for missing school should not be to miss more school. Students, especially those with behavioral issues, need to be in school where teachers and counselors can help them succeed,” Skinner said in a statement.