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Beginning July 1, school administrators will no longer be able to suspend students for low-level behavioral issues, also known as “willful defiance.” Justifications for a willful defiance suspension could include dress code violations, being late to class, talking back to teachers, refusing to turn off their cellphone or anything that is “disrupting school activities or otherwise willfully defying the valid authority of school staff,” according to California education code.
SB 274, written by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, bans willful defiance suspensions and expulsions in California high schools through 2029 and extends an existing ban on willful defiance suspensions in California middle schools through the same year. The bans also affect charter schools.
Under the new law, unruly kids could be removed from classrooms without being suspended. Instead of taking them out of school, it would be up to administrators to provide appropriate in-school interventions and support.
Equity was a motivation for crafting this law. Skinner’s office cited the disproportionate affect of defiance suspensions on “students of color, LGBTQ students, students who are homeless or in foster care, and those with disabilities” in September news release heralding the bill’s passage in the Legislature.
Advocates for the bill, which included the American Civil Liberties Union and Sacramento’s Black Parallel School Board, argue that suspensions on the basis of willful defiance disproportionately affect Black students, inflicting punitive measures instead of providing the support needed to amend that behavior. Statewide, Black students make up 14% of defiance-only suspensions while representing just 5% of enrollment.
Are certain groups of students in Sacramento disproportionately affected by defiance-only suspensions? And how will Sacramento schools eliminate this type of suspension while striving for orderly classrooms?
Defiance-only suspensions are high in Sacramento
According to state data for the 2022-23 school year, 10.49% of suspensions in Sacramento county schools were categorized as willful defiance, versus just 6.44% of suspensions statewide. Overall suspensions of any type are also higher in Sacramento, 8.9% versus 5.6% statewide.
The trend of these suspensions disproportionately affecting Black students is very apparent in Sacramento: In county school districts, Black students make up 10.3% of the enrollment, but account for 26% of defiance-only suspensions.
Other life circumstances also correspond with higher suspension rates. Unduplicated students, meaning students who are English learners, eligible for free or reduced lunch or are foster youth, are also overrepresented in defiance-only suspensions. Statewide, unduplicated students make up 74% of defiance-only suspensions, but Sacramento students fare a little better, making up just 67% of defiance-only suspensions.
Latino students were slightly overrepresented in county data, making up 33.9% of defiance-only suspensions while representing 32.6% of county enrollment.
Asian and white students were far less likely to be suspended for defiance in Sacramento. Asian students, who make up 17.2% of county enrollment, receive just 3.2% of defiance-only suspensions. White students make up 27% of enrollment and received 23.2% of defiance-only suspensions.
Charter schools are not immune to this phenomenon. Charter schools in Sacramento have a lower overall suspension rate and defiance-only suspension rate, but Black students compose 64.6% of defiance-only suspensions despite representing only 10.2% of enrolled students.
Both charter and public schools in Sacramento had similar rates of defiance-only suspensions among unduplicated students.
How one school district did away with defiance-only suspensions
Natomas Unified School District stands out among Sacramento districts with the lowest defiance-only suspension rate (less than 1%), and that is no accident. The Natomas Unified Board of Trustees passed a resolution in October 2021 to end willful defiance school suspensions as a part of an effort to make systemic changes that would benefit male students of color.
“We did that well in advance of any (state) policy because we felt like we really need to emphasize how we can support our students with other means of intervention,” Chief Academic Officer Angela Herrera said. She cited the district’s partnership with Improve Your Tomorrow, an educational nonprofit that works to uplift young men of color and prevent them from falling victim to the school-to-prison pipeline.
Herrera said that while the change has “definitely been positive,” it took a lot of district investment to ensure that students receive intervention services and that classrooms don’t descend into chaos as a result of repeated disruptions. The district focused on providing staff training on restorative practices and community building skills. Addressing poor behavior in the classroom starts with having a strong personal relationship between a student and a trusted adult, Herrera said.
The goal is preventing disruptive behavior, but in the case that there is significant disruption in the classroom that disturbs the educational environment for other students, the district has set protocol. If a student’s behavior has risen to that level, school administrators may step in to stage mediating conferences between the student and the teacher to help restore their relationship. Each school site also has a psychologist and a counselor to help get to the root of the student’s issue.
Providing trauma-informed staff training has been one of the biggest undertakings when getting rid of willful defiance suspensions, and it has not always been smooth sailing, Herrera said.
“It takes work and it takes training and commitment,” Herrera said. “Changing is hard and I don’t want to portray it with rosy lenses, but it is worth it.”
Administrators from Sacramento City Unified School District say that have taken a similar approach, despite not outright banning willful defiance suspensions. The rate of defiance-only suspensions in the district is 4%, less than half of the county average. Chief Academic Officer Yvonne Wright said that this type of suspension is treated as a last resort instead of an immediate disciplinary action.
“This new law shouldn’t change much for Sac City Unified as we have worked diligently in recent years to reduce suspensions and identify alternative and restorative forms of discipline,” Wright said. “SB 274 encourages schools to implement restorative practices, explore root causes, implement supportive strategies and provide counseling services; all of which we have already done.”
School districts with the highest rates of defiance-only suspensions
Sacramento school districts varied widely in the rate at which they suspended students for willful defiance. Like Natomas and Sacramento City Unified, other districts with lower rates of defiance-only suspensions include Elk Grove Unified School District (5%), Folsom Cordova Unified School District (5.9%) and River Delta Joint Unified School District (0.32%). Galt Joint Union High School District came in above the state average, but below the county average at 7.3%.
A few districts far exceeded the statewide and county average. Defiance-only suspensions accounted for 14.3% of suspensions overall at Center Joint Unified School District, 13.9% at Robla Elementary School District (despite only having K-8 schools), 13.4% at the Sacramento County Office of Education (which mostly includes charter and alternative schools) and 16.4% at Twin Rivers Unified School District.
San Juan Unified School District far exceeded any other district in the region, with 22.8% of its suspensions being categorized as defiance-only. The district’s public high schools had the worst rate of suspensions, but several middle and K-8 schools still showed a significant amount of defiance-only suspensions despite them being banned in K-8 by that time period.
Despite this high rate of defiance-only suspensions at San Juan Unified, a district spokesperson said that administrators are preparing for the implementation of SB 274 come this school year.
“Over the last several years, we have been working to reduce the rates of home suspension and exclusionary discipline for all students, while also focusing on our most marginalized students and their disproportionate suspension rates,” said Raj Rai, director of communications at San Juan Unified. “We have expanded our restorative practices, as well as positive behavioral supports and interventions. We have also hired additional staff, such as mental health therapists, school social workers, school counselors, behaviorists and trauma-informed coordinators to support this work.”
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