Despite reforms, Black students still disproportionately suspended at San Diego Unified

San Diego Unified is suspending and expelling fewer students. But as the county’s largest school district implements changes to its restorative discipline policy, its African American students continue to be disciplined at higher rates than their peers.

The number of suspensions at San Diego Unified has dropped by roughly 15% and expulsions decreased by half since the 2019-20 year, according to district data. However, with the district’s ongoing enrollment drops, the overall suspension rate has remained about the same compared to that year — at 2%. 

Still, school officials credit a shift in 2020 from punitive policies to restorative justice amid discipline disparities at the district and nationwide protests against systemic racism. 

But this most recent school year, about 5% of the district’s African American students were suspended at least once — a rate nearly four times greater than white students and nearly eight times greater than Asian students, an inewsource analysis found. 

Total suspensions for African American students went down from 725 during 2019-20 to 605 this year. But when accounting for enrollment declines, the suspension rate has stayed largely the same.

Annual expulsions for African American students have ranged from as low as zero during the COVID-19 pandemic to as high as 12. Last school year, the district expelled five African American students — making for the highest rate among all racial and ethnic groups and accounting for about a quarter of total expulsions.

“By certain metrics, the number of expulsions, we’ve had success. But by other metrics, we know that we’ve got work yet to do,” board member Richard Barrera said during a meeting last month. “But we’re not backing away. What we know is that restorative practices is about learning and is about education, and that a commitment to equity means that we honestly address where we’ve got systemic issues.”

Since 2011, African American students have had the highest suspension rate compared to any racial or ethnic group in the district. 

How we did our analysis

inewsource used student enrollment numbers and suspension and expulsion rates from DataQuest, a website run by the California Department of Education. Information found on the website is provided by school districts throughout the state at a certain point in time and doesn’t include late corrections or updates. Although data in a district system is continuously updated and may slightly vary from what’s found on DataQuest, “numbers will be fairly close,” said Mike Murad, San Diego Unified’s media specialist. The district provided the data for 2024-25, as numbers for that year are not yet available in DataQuest.

Restorative justice approaches are meant to repair relationships — bringing individuals involved in a dispute together, for example, to help them uncover the root causes of the problem. Research shows the likelihood of incarceration increases among students who are suspended, but that a restorative approach can result in positive behavior and school climate.

Officials can either jumpstart a student’s risk of entering the school-to-prison pipeline or choose to educate them on how to resolve conflict, Barrera said. 

“In the same way that students have to learn how to read and learn how to do math, students need to learn how to get to a point of respectfully being in relationship with other students and with people in a community,” he said.

But community members have raised concerns about the district’s restorative justice approach. Some say there aren’t clear enough guidelines as to why certain disciplinary actions are justified and that it fails to keep some students from repeating negative behaviors, according to feedback the district received. 

That criticism prompted San Diego Unified board members to make changes last month. The policy now outlines interventions for certain behavior levels — including when classroom intervention, suspension and expulsion is recommended — and increases consequences for students that commit multiple offenses. 

The district will also begin tracking the outcomes of its restorative interventions, and a new case management system will allow officials to identify whether schools are overutilizing suspensions for the same types of offenses. 

Although officials hope restorative practices reduce discipline disparities, suspension and expulsion data isn’t the only way to measure the policy’s effectiveness, said Ebonee Weathers, San Diego Unified’s executive director of equity and belonging. Attendance, academic outcomes, and a student’s ability to address trauma and sense of safety and belonging should also be considered, she said.

Data shows that the district’s annual survey of fifth graders show more than three-fourths say they feel safe on campus. But San Diego Unified has struggled with chronic absenteeism — those who have missed at least a tenth of the school year. 

More than one-fifth of students were chronically absent during the 2023-24 year, the most recent state data available.

“We’re really trying to broaden our scope of data collection and analysis beyond just looking at suspensions and expulsions,” Weathers told inewsource. 

Officials said they plan to broaden tracking through their new data team.

Board members unanimously approved the restorative policy updates. Yet some said they remain concerned that the guidelines remain ambiguous. What are known as level three behaviors, such as a student causing physical injury, could result in suspension but does not make it definitive. 

“I worry that without clearly defined guidance on what constitutes a suspendable or expellable offense, we risk reinforcing patterns of disciplinary action that have historically and disproportionately impacted students of color, students with disabilities and other marginalized groups,” said Trustee Shana Hazan.

But staff who worked on the policy update say over-developing guidelines can be harmful and confusing, and site leaders need the ability to take discretionary action. Offenses like robbery sound “very serious,” but not all situations are the same, such as a third grader taking away another student’s lunch money, said Farshad Talebi, the district’s executive director of investigations, compliance and accountability.

“We have to kind of allow for the discretion of the sites and looking at culpability and severity of the behavior, not just the offense specifically,” he said.