Suspended Futures: Transforming Racial Inequities in School Discipline

An incisive examination of the school discipline crisis and a strategic, evidence-driven playbook for educational decision-makers who aim to resolve disciplinary disparities

Richard O. Welsh takes on the school discipline crisis in Suspended Futures, delineating the persistent racial disparities in how educators perceive and respond to the behavior of students. Welsh offers a framework for disrupting and dismantling a disciplinary system that disproportionately disadvantages students of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous identities. Underscoring the urgency of the dilemma, he discusses how the prevalence of exclusionary discipline in school--in which students are punished with removal from the classroom through suspension, expulsion, or alternative placement--results in significant loss of instructional time, which can lead to a cascade of negative student outcomes, from low achievement to carceral consequences.

Welsh synthesizes research and analyzes data from sources such as the Civil Rights Data Collection and New York City Public Schools to lay out context for the ongoing disagreement over the root causes of and solutions to student misbehavior.

The book argues for a shift from student-focused to educator-focused approaches to education reform and a shift from blaming to supporting teachers, principals, and administrators. Welsh emphasizes the need for school discipline reform that improves the school climate, addresses pervasive anti-Blackness, and supports inclusive learning. An ideal transformation, he proposes, incorporates restorative justice and Afrofuturism to create spaces of student healing, validation, and reward in schools.

Richard O. Welsh is an associate professor of education and public policy in the Peabody College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University. His research is focused on understanding and transforming inequality in K-12 education. He is the founding director of the School Discipline Lab.