The D.C. Council moved closer Tuesday to overhauling school punishment policy in a bid to address dramatic disparities in discipline rates among black and white students.
The council’s education committee voted unanimously in favor of restricting the circumstances when a school can suspend or expel a student.
The five members of that committee framed the disproportionate suspensions and expulsions of black students in the District as a civil rights issue. The legislation will now move to the full 13-member council.
Black students in D.C. schools are nearly eight times more likely to receive an out-of-school suspension than their white peers, according to city data.