Washington, DC – The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) applauds the Biden Administration for issuing new federal school discipline guidance today. This guidance reinforces critical civil rights obligations and provides evidence-based strategies that will protect our students with disabilities in school and help ensure a free and appropriate public education.

It is critical that schools provide learning environments where all students are cared for, valued, and respected. The new guidance is integral to creating those environments, and schools are now better equipped to implement positive and preventative measures.

“Students of color and students with disabilities are disciplined at higher rates than other students, especially in the use of suspension, expulsions, and informal removals. As a result, these students are losing substantial amounts of time to learn academically and grow socially and emotionally,” said Lindsay Kubatzky, Director of Policy and Advocacy at NCLD. “For far too long we’ve known these disparities to be true and haven’t taken actionable steps to address them. NCLD is grateful that the Biden Administration issued this important guidance that is long overdue.”

NCLD also commends the U.S. Department of Education for recognizing that hardening schools is not an effective way to keep students safe. In fact, research indicates these types of practices — such as implementing threat assessments or metal detectors — can result in the profiling of and discrimination against Black and Brown students and students with disabilities and make students feel less safe.

As recent tragic events show, keeping students safe should be the highest priority in our country. While there is still much work to be done, this is an important first step. NCLD stands with the Biden Administration and all of the parents, teachers, students, and communities that believe all children should be kept safe and treated fairly in schools.

Read the full press statement here.

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For more information, please contact:
Lindsay Kubatzky
Director of Policy and Advocacy
lkubatzky@ncld.org