The Impact of Suspensions on K-12 Youth in Schools

Author: Sabrina Sherman

Published: 15 July 2025

Restorative justice (RJ) is an alternative to disciplinary action in schools. It is a peaceful conflict resolution and relationship building approach which places emphasis on ensuring students thrive in school when they would otherwise face punishment that could impact their lives far beyond the school environment. 

According to the US Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection (https://civilrightsdata.ed.gov/), in the 2020-2021 academic year, nearly 786,600 K-12 public school students received in-school suspensions and 638,700 received out-of-school suspensions.

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The societal factors that can influence student suspension rates include socioeconomic status, race, disability, and school climate for example.[1] Enrique Garza, the Restorative Justice Program Manager at RSCCM, explains that “suspension…affect minority groups that tend to also have limitations in their social economic [sic] status. This can create a bigger gap between the students mind and the idea of suspensions.” While facing barriers such as socioeconomic status, students also have to worry about falling behind on their work. Some studies argue that suspensions do not resolve such students’ behavioral actions.[2] Rather, suspensions result in a decline in academic test scores including declining math proficiency.[3]

 

As Sociology and Criminal Justice professor Aaron Kupchik says in his Times article, “Why School Suspensions Do More Harm Than Good,” “It is important to hold students accountable for misbehavior, but in a way that teaches them and supports their growth, not that holds them back.”[4] Removing students from schools as punishment increases the chances of students’ negative relationships with learning.

 

Suspensions impact students by giving them a negative relationships with school and teachers. Policy and juvenile justice researcher Johanna Lacoe also suggests that there is a direct correlation between feelings of unsafety and academic achievement in New York public schools.[5]

 

According to RSCCM’s Restorative Justice Manager Garza, suspensions often lead to feelings of “abandon[ment], not belonging, feeling that things are easier if you feed a perspective others give you, even if that may not lead to a positive outcome.” Suspensions persistently place students outside of the environment where they are more likely to succeed.

 

Garza highlights how suspensions happen. “Students at times do not understand or underestimate consequences to [their] actions, which leaves [them] little to no room to avoid suspensions.”[6] Garza continues, “It is highly unlikely that students who get suspended feel suspension as a punishment or as an opportunity to learn a lesson. In my opinion, suspension may be seen more as down time rather than consequences generating gaps.” Students may not understand the gravity of the suspensions, but they end up facing long-term impacts of their actions nonetheless.

 

In December 2016, a new Michigan law changed the “zero tolerance” policy for schools. “Zero tolerance” held that certain actions would result in suspension or expulsion, but the new legislation called for increased flexibility. According to then Governor Rick Snyder, “We are giving school districts flexibility to consider many factors when making decisions on disciplinary actions for schools…This is similar to measures we have taken to reform our criminal justice system by emphasizing restorative justice.”[7]

 

School suspensions tend to disproportionately distance and provoke disengagement in students because suspensions place students out of the school environment where they can grow and flourish. As an alternative to suspensions, restorative justice promotes healing and conflict resolution–also impacting feelings of safety. Restorative justice brings students, families, schools, and communities together to resolve problems, promote healing, and transform conflict. Through restorative justice, we can transform school culture from suspensions to success in school.

 

Garza has seen many schools welcome restorative justice in certain ways but this perspective shift might have less of an impact if staff are not properly trained. However, Garza has noticed that schools might be less apt to hire a restorative justice specialist. “Although [schools] welcome the framework, they overlook the power of having a neutral party facilitate support. The [schools] that have a neutral person doing restorative justice work at schools tend to be able to foster restorative interactions that students begin to engage with instinctively.”

 

The effects of a solid restorative justice framework for kids are invaluable. Garza shares, “I've witnessed students as young as 7 years of age, engage in restorative conversations and circles on their own. This to me, shows the strength and power of restorative justice in schools. If students from the age of 7 start to understand accountability and the power of their actions, by the time they reach middle school, they will start to interact differently with other students.”

 

Restorative justice is necessary to support the work of schools in developing positive communities for their students. RSCCM’s restorative justice program centers on building relationships, participating in community, and enabling feelings of safety and belonging.

“This ultimately leads to better understanding of relationships,” Garza states, “and ultimately influences the entire school community and culture in a positive way.”

 

If you would like to support our restorative justice efforts in schools, consider the following:

1. Donate to RSCCM’s restorative justice program.

2. Ask local schools in your area to bring in RSCCM’s trained restorative justice specialists.

3. Inform your parent teacher associations about the problems of suspension in schools.

4. Consider volunteering to become a restorative justice specialist.

 

[1] Aaron Kupchik, “Why School Suspensions Do More Harm Than Good,” Time, 2025, https://time.com/7260079/school-suspensions-do-harm/. Accessed 13 May 2025. L. Ayoub, E. Jensen, T. Sandwick, et al, “School Discipline, Safety, and Climate: A Comprehensive Study in New York City,” Center for Court Innovations, 2019.

[2] Johanna Lacoe and Matthew P. Steinberg, “Do Suspensions Affect Student Outcomes,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 2019, vol. 41, no. 1, p. 34, 10.3102/016237371879489.

[3] Lacoe and Steinberg, 44-46.

[4] Kupcik, “Why School Suspensions.”

[5] Johanna Lacoe, “Too Scared to Learn? The Academic Consequences of Feeling Unsafe in the Classroom,” Urban Education, 2020, vol. 55, no. 10, pp 1385-1418, 10.1177/0042085916674059. Ayoub et al, “School Discipline.”

[6] Sabrina Sherman, interview of Enrique Garza, 10 July 2025,

[7] Emily Lawler, “Snyder signs bills which seek to reduce school suspensions, expulsions,” MLive, Dec. 22, 2016. Accessed 10 July 2025.