What’s Past Is Prologue: Disciplinary History and Racial Disparities in School Suspension

Research consistently shows that youth of color are more likely to be suspended from school than their White counterparts, yet the role of students’ prior suspension experiences in this relationship remains unclear. Corresponding with a labeling framework, disciplinary histories might serve as an intervening mechanism that partially explains racial/ethnic disparities in later suspension, as previously suspended youth can be subjected to heightened surveillance and scrutiny. Similarly, a previous suspension could be interpreted as congruent with racialized expectations, resulting in especially pronounced inequalities among students with disciplinary histories. The current study explores these lines of inquiry using data on a sample of public middle and high school students from the 2022 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey ( N = 47,572). The findings reveal that approximately 20% of the Black-White difference in past-year school suspension is indirect through earlier suspension, and racial inequalities in suspension are greater for youth who were previously disciplined.