Racial Bias in School Discipline and Police Contact: Evidence From the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Social Development (ABCD-SD) Study

Objective Black youth are disproportionately exposed to school exclusionary discipline. We examined the impact of race on age at the onset of school disciplinary actions and police contact, and the rate of receiving increasingly severe disciplinary actions. Method Youth (N = 2,156) and their caregivers participating in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Social Development (ABCD-SD) study reported on the occurrence and timing of disciplinary events, the youth’s demographics, delinquency, and their neighborhood conditions. Experiences of exclusionary discipline were analyzed using logistic regression and Cox proportional hazard models. Results Black youth reported significantly higher rates of almost all disciplinary events compared to White youth. In logistic regression and Cox models, Black youth experienced higher risk for exclusionary discipline and police contact (odds ratios from 2.47 [detention] to 5.16 [sent home]; hazard ratios from 1.36 [detention] to 4.71 [expelled]), even after adjusting for sex, delinquency, neighborhood conditions, and the interaction between race and sex. Black youth who received detention and suspension were at higher risk for additional, more severe school discipline than White youth. Conclusion Consistent with a racial bias in exclusionary discipline practices and policing, Black youth, particularly Black males, were at a higher risk for experiencing almost all disciplinary outcomes and at younger ages than White youth, after controlling for delinquency, sex, and neighborhood factors. Compared to White students, school detention and suspension status predicted an accelerated cascade of school discipline outcomes for Black students, suggesting racial disparities in how the severity of school discipline escalates over time.