Via OSSE.

Suspending or expelling pre-kindergarten age children from publicly funded programs would be banned under a new bill introduced by Councilmember David Grosso.

The legislation comes on the heels of a report from the Office of the State Superintendent that found 181 pre-K students received an out-of-school suspension for a federally reported disciplinary action during the 2012-2013 school year. “The idea that we would suspend somebody who’s three- or four years old is just completely unreasonable,” Grosso said at the time.

The report also found the need for more data to better understand how many children are expelled and suspended and why. Grosso’s bill would establish “annual reporting requirements for each local education agency on suspensions and expulsions data.”

“The conversation regarding student discipline is ripe in the District of Columbia,” Grosso said in a release. “Regardless of which sector our youngest public school students begin their education, it is in the public interest that the most extreme options with regard to student discipline be age and developmentally appropriate.”

OSSE report and recommendations on reducing out-of-school suspensions and expulsions in the District of Col… by Team_Grosso