Researchers find that students on the South and Central Coasts are losing tens of thousands of days of instruction due to suspensions.
A study by UCLA’s Center for Civil Rights Remedies shows that suspensions in school districts across Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties accounted for nearly 28,000 days of lost instruction during the 2014-2015 academic year.
That’s about 11 1/2 days per 100 students enrolled. While that’s slightly below the state average of 13, the Center’s Director Dan Losen says it still suggests that suspensions are overused.
“We don’t need to be kicking kids out right and left to have healthy learning environments. There are other ways to create those environments,” he said.
The study also found that there were racial disparities across both the Tri-Counties and the state in which Black students missed many more days than their white counterparts.