Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
Category: Student Well-Being
Across the United States, suspension bans have become a popular policy response to address
excessive and inequitable use of suspension in schools. However, there is little research
that examines what strategies school staff employ when suspension is no longer permitted. I
examine the effect of New York City’s suspension ban on the use of a potential unintended substitute
for suspension: special education classification. Using a dosage difference-in-differences
strategy, I find that the ban induced an increase in disability classifications at high risk for classroom
exclusion. I show that, on average, students with these classifications in schools with
high pre-policy reliance on suspension experienced large declines in test scores, whereas general
education students experienced slight test score improvements. Notably, I show that these
declines are not due to new, ban-induced classifications actively harming student achievement.
These results underscore the importance of considering unintended consequences and vulnerable
groups when employing a seemingly "costless" and popular policy lever to reduce schools’
reliance on suspension.
Keywords
students with disabilities, discipline reform
Education level
Topics
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/yvwe-dq47
