Introduction: North Carolina (NC) has widespread Black-White/Hispanic racial disparities in exclusionary discipline (punishment removing children from normal learning environments), with disparities varying substantially by school district. Exclusionary discipline is an added risk factor for numerous negative academic and social outcomes. This dissertation studies two points of intervention that have the potential to decrease discipline disparities in NC: participation in NC Pre-Kindergarten (NCPK) and student-teacher race-match during NCPK. Methods: Using a matched, administrative dataset with records for all NCPK and NC public school attendees between 2008-09 and 2017-18, we employed mixed effects pooled logistic regression to estimate adjusted odds ratios of experiencing a first disciplinary event between Kindergarten and ninth grade. Aim 1 compares NCPK participants to non-participants with similar characteristics; Aim 2 compares children with a same-race NCPK teacher to children without. We examine effect heterogeneity of school districts' levels of discipline racial disparity (Aim 1); timing of the first discipline event; child race/ethnicity, disability, and sex; and subsequent student-teacher race-match (Aim 2). Results: Aim 1 found that NPCK was not associated with discipline for Black children at any time but was associated with reduced odds of discipline for Hispanic sixth through ninth graders, and increased odds for White children (particularly in high disparity districts). Aim 2 found that Black third through fifth graders who had a Black NCPK teacher had slightly higher odds of first discipline than those who did not (with a small effect size). However, the percentage of Black teachers in a school was associated with lower odds of discipline for Black children. NCPK student-teacher race-match was associated with lower odds of discipline overall for Hispanic and White children (particularly White females). Conclusions: Neither approach appeared promising for reducing disparity levels. We recommend that 1) NCPK prioritize children's social and emotional development, 2) NC work toward increasing the diversity of public school teachers, and 3) future research and policy focus on other structural factors (e.g., overall racial diversity of the teacher workforce, racial segregation of students, Eurocentric values) in identifying ways to reduce high discipline disparities. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]