School psychologists have a responsibility to promote positive outcomes for children that includes removing systemic barriers for our most marginalized students. The current political climate surrounding the movement for racial justice should inform our service provision to schools, students, and their families. Racism and implicit bias are at the…

Addressing racial disparities in school discipline is an urgent and widespread issue facing US schools. One approach to improve racial equity in school discipline practice is to enhance the contextual fit of empirically validated schoolwide practices. Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is a widely implemented and…

Exclusionary discipline is commonly employed in U. S. schools and disproportionately affects students of color. This article describes current approaches to discipline and contextualizes these approaches historically with particular attention to racial dynamics and violence. We identify the harmful effects of exclusionary discipline and describe…

A full canon of empirical literature shows that students who are African American, Latinx, or American Indian/Alaskan Native, and students who are male, diagnosed with disabilities, or from low socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to experience exclusionary discipline practices in U.S. schools. Though there is a growing commitment to…

Communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, exposing the influence of decades of policies that have under-resourced and marginalized these communities. The history of segregation and inadequate funding in education has been exacerbated by the pandemic, compounding the educational…

This article recounts an autoethnographic study of a White elementary school principal's efforts to confront White supremacy in punitive discipline. This principal applied transformative leadership precepts and antiracist pedagogy to conduct a school turnaround effort. The district had committed to neoliberal reform and neoliberal mandates in…

Addressing racial disparities in school discipline is an urgent and widespread issue facing U.S. schools. One approach to improve racial equity in school discipline practice is to enhance the contextual fit of empirically validated school-wide practices. School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is a widely implemented…

Implicit in the discourse on school discipline reform is the belief that utilizing "positive school discipline practices," as opposed to suspension and classroom removal, will necessarily reduce the racially disproportionate representation of black and brown students in school discipline outcomes. Yet even in schools that utilize…

In this article, Kervick and colleagues posit that restorative practices (RP) implementation promises to mitigate educational inequities resulting from discipline disparities for youth with disabilities and youth of color. Recent efforts to reduce these disparities have emphasized more relational approaches to behavioral change. Kervick et al.…

As interventions show promise for reducing school discipline disparities, it is important to understand what variables increase educators' commitment toward addressing racial equity in schools. In-depth interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 15 educators asked to describe pivotal events that shifted their own or others' active…

Extension of retribution- and incapacitation-based criminal justice policies and practices to schools has exacerbated racial and ethnic disproportionality in school discipline, a serious and unsolved threat to equity in education and social opportunity. Common approaches implemented to reduce discipline disproportionality have not been shown to be…

The purpose of this policy statement is to support families, early childhood programs, and States by providing recommendations from the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education (ED) for preventing and severely limiting expulsion and suspension practices in early childhood settings. Recent data indicate that expulsions and…