A bill looking to address the underlying causes of excessive school discipline passed a House committee on Tuesday.
Following a national trend, it would require school officials to create an "evidence-based" plan to address root causes of bad behavior before resorting to suspensions or expulsions.
The goal is to have school districts — with parental feedback — develop a graduated "positive discipline" system that leads to punitive punishment and lost school time only as a last resort. It would also require schools to factor in the role that formative traumatic stress plays on student behavior.
The bill passed the House Education committee on an 8-5 vote Tuesday.
Its chairman, Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said he was unsure if the bill would ultimately pass the House and expected further changes.
The measure is the latest lawmakers have considered in light of statistics released every two years by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights showing African-American and special education students often are disciplined at disproportionately higher rates.
Multiple proponents cited a 2014 U.S. Department of Education study that found Indiana was one of five states — including Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Rhode Island — that suspended boys across all racial lines at rates that exceeded national averages.
Using data from 2011-12, the federal report found African-American boys received suspensions at far higher rates than white students.
About 12 percent of all students statewide that year were African-American, according to state data. But, African-American boys made up 27 percent of all boys receiving out-of-school suspensions that year, according to federal data.
Following African-Americans, boys receiving out-of-school suspensions were — one or more race (17 percent), American Indian or native Alaskan (14 percent), Hispanic (11 percent), white (8 percent), Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (8 percent) and Asian (5 percent).
Of girls receiving out-of-school suspensions that year, 16 percent were African-American, compared to 3 percent who were white, according to the report.
Federal data also showed special education students were twice as likely to receive an out-of-school suspension — 14 percent, compared to 7 percent for non-special education students.
The process should be "really centering on the child...so we can avoid the crisis we so often encounter — where we have to call law enforcement or use suspension," Children's Policy and Law Initiative of Indiana President JauNae Hanger said Monday during testimony.
The Indiana State Teachers Association opposed the bill, expressing concerns that teachers should have a more involved role in developing an action plan and the lack of state money for professional development in the bill, which would fall to each school district.
The most recently available statistics by school district from the U.S. Department of Education dates back to 2014. The Post-Tribune has filed a public records request for updated information across Northwest Indiana.