State-Level Analysis of School Punitive Discipline Practices in Florida

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify statewide trends in school approaches to student discipline and examine the associations between punitive discipline practices and student, school, and local education agency (LEA) characteristics. In addition, we compared punitive disciplinary practices for schools and LEAs that do and do not allow corporal punishment. Publicly available data from the 2010–2011 Florida Department of Education and Common Core of Data were used to assess associations between (a) punitive discipline practices (i.e., suspensions, expulsions, restraints, corporal punishment, and changes of placement) and student characteristics (i.e., grade level, gender, and race), (b) punitive discipline practices (without corporal punishment) and school and LEA characteristics, and (c) school use of corporal punishment and school and LEA characteristics. Results of descriptive comparisons, tests of association, and multilevel regression analyses indicated that schools with higher ratios of (a) students receiving free and reduced lunch and (b) Black or African American students more frequently employed punitive discipline practices, and that punitive discipline practices were disproportionately used with males and Black or African American students. We provide additional results and implications for research, policy, and practice.