Levels of use of exclusionary discipline in U.S. public elementary schools: patterns over time and relations with chronic student absenteeism

Exclusionary discipline (ExD)—including out-of-school suspensions and expulsions—remains widely used in U.S. public schools despite evidence of its ineffectiveness and disproportionate application. Although prior research has linked ExD to a range of adverse student outcomes, far less is known about whether schools' consistent use of ExD over time predicts chronic student absenteeism (CSA), a major indicator of student disengagement and academic risk. The present study used three waves of Civil