No Hitting: Effects of a Ban on Corporal Punishment for Students With Disabilities

Fifteen states allow corporal punishment in public schools, which occurred nearly 100,000 times in 2017–2018, disproportionately involving students with disabilities (SWDs). While Southern legislatures have rejected multiple attempts to ban the practice outright, six states recently restricted corporal punishment specifically for SWDs. There is scant research on these restrictions, including on compliance and whether schools replaced corporal punishment with suspensions. Using a triple difference, I estimate the impacts of Louisiana’s 2017 corporal punishment ban for SWDs. The ban significantly reduced corporal punishment for SWDs, though compliance was imperfect. I find no evidence of an increase in suspensions, suggesting that policymakers need not choose between exclusionary and physical discipline. I conclude with implications for monitoring and accountability in discipline reforms.