K-12 Education: Differences in Student Arrest Rates Widen when Race, Gender, and Disability Status Overlap
Why GAO Did This Study
The Departments of Education and Justice are responsible for enforcing certain federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination report for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2023, includes a provision for GAO to review the role of policing in schools, including the effect on students of different races. This report addresses (1) what Education’s data show about the extent to which different student groups are arrested in K-12 schools and (2) whether police presence in schools is associated with student arrests. GAO analyzed two federal Education datasets for the two most recent school years before the pandemic (2015 2016 and 2017–2018) and 2019–2020. GAO also visited three school districts, selected for factors such as high rates of arrests; reviewed federal laws and regulations; and interviewed federal officials and representatives of national education and civil rights groups. What GAO Recommends GAO is making three recommendations that Education: (1) collect arrest and referral data, by race, for students with disabilities who receive services under Section 504; (2) disclose the limitations of its 2021 2022 arrest data; and (3) clearly inform school districts about future changes to arrest and referral data in its civil rights data collection. Education generally agreed with these recommendations.
GAO-24-106294
Washington, DC: United States Government Accountability Office, 2024. 67p.