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The Collaboration teams up with University of Chicago at Illinois professor Kate Zinsser and a team of researchers to build an interconnected roadmap that will address early childhood expulsion, the absence of men from the early childhood workforce, and most ambitiously, build community-wide supports for men who have recently had a their criminal record expunged as a result of the legalization of marijuana. Specifically, to help these individuals secure the training and schooling required to become early childhood educators, and to serve as role models for young boys.

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ACLU study shows that Black people are 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people, despite studies that show that usage does not vary across race.

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NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today released a new report showing that Black people are 3.64 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession despite comparable marijuana usage rates. Additionally, although the total number of people arrested for marijuana possession has decreased in the past decade, law enforcement still made 6.1 million such arrests over that period, and the racial disparities in arrest rates remain in every state.

The report, A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform, details marijuana possession arrests from 2010 to 2018, and updates our unprecedented national report published in 2013, The War on Marijuana in Black and White. The disturbing findings of this new research show that despite several states having reformed marijuana policy over the last decade, far too much has remained unchanged when it comes to racial disparities in arrests.

Key findings include:

Law enforcement made more than 6.1 million marijuana-related arrests form 2010-2018. In 2018 alone, there were almost 700,000 marijuana arrests, which accounted for more than 43 percent of all drug arrests. In 2018, law enforcement made more marijuana arrests than for all violent crimes combined.

Despite legalization in a number of states, it is not clear that marijuana arrests are trending downward nationally. Arrest rates have actually risen in the past few years, with almost 100,000 more arrests in 2018 than 2015.

In every state, and in over 96 percent of the counties examined, Black people were much more likely to be arrested than white people for marijuana possession. Overall, these disparities have not improved. On average, a Black person is 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, even though Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates. In 10 states, Blacks were more than five times more likely to be arrested.

In states that legalized marijuana, arrest rates decreased after legalization, however racial disparities still remained.

A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform comes at a time when the criminal legal system is overwhelmed by the public health crisis presented by COVID-19 that demands expedited decarcercal action to safeguard the lives of those incarcerated in and employed by jails and prisons. The reforms recommended in this report provide a roadmap for reducing marijuana arrests and criminalization as governors, prosecutors, judges, and other stakeholders across the country grapple with the harms presented by the public health crisis and take steps to release people from jails and prisons.

"Many state and local governments across the country continue to aggressively enforce marijuana laws, disproportionately targeting Black communities,"said Ezekiel Edwards, director of the Criminal Law Reform Project at the ACLU and one of the primary authors of the report. "Criminalizing people who use marijuana needlessly entangles hundreds of thousands of people in the criminal legal system every year at a tremendous individual and societal cost. As a matter of racial justice and sound public health policy, every state in the country must legalize marijuana with racial equity at the foundation of such reform."

To combat the racial disparities rampant in marijuana-related arrests, the ACLU is calling not only for an end to racialized policing, but also for full legalization of marijuana use and possession and specific measures to ensure legalization efforts are grounded in racial justice. This includes pressing for passage of the MORE Act, which aims to correct historical injustices of the failed War on Drugs that has terrorized Black communities by decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level, reassessing marijuana convictions, and investment in economically disadvantaged communities.

The full report is available here.

State level data is available here.

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New ACLU Report: Despite Marijuana Legalization Black People Still Almost Four Times More Likely to Get Arrested

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NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today released a new report showing that Black people are 3.64 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession despite comparable marijuana usage rates.

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The Collaboration for Early Childhood joins the Care Constellation Cohort to build the Prison to Preschool Pipeline.

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The Global Pandemic shuts down the world and the Child Care Industry falls into crisis.

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Media Contact

Government Affairs

The American child care crisis is decades old and continues to disproportionately affect women. Although the child care field—which is 90 percent women—received funding to make sure it survives the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of substantial, long-term funding for affordable, accessible, and high-quality child care options continues to push women out of the workforce and cause issues with retaining qualified early childhood teachers. It is time to end the U.S. child care crisis and its disproportionate effects on women. It is time to pass robust, sustained public funding.

Erin Robinson is the campaign manager for Early Childhood Policy at the Center for American Progress. Darya Nicol is the digital communications associate for Early Childhood Policy at the Center.

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.

Erin Robinson

Campaign Manager

Darya Nicol

Digital Communications Associate

Jasmine Hardy

Senior Video Producer

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The lack of affordable and high-quality child care has disproportionately pushed women out of the workforce for decades. It is long past time for the United States to provide adequate, sustained funding and end the child care crisis.

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Led by Professor Kate Zinsser at University of Illinois at Chicago, a study that shows that a third of preschool programs in Illinois have inaccurate information about the Preschool Expulsion Legislation. Twenty percent of studied programs did not even realize that the law existed.

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As any of us know who've spent time with preschoolers, they can be highly challenging. They have strong opinions, but often lack the vocabulary and reasoning to cogently make their points. Instead, they might push, hit or bite - potentially injuring themselves or others. And in a group setting, these kinds of disruptions can lead an already-taxed preschool instructor to send the child home - sometimes for the rest of the year.

More than 250 children are suspended or expelled from preschool every day, a 2017 study found. Preschool children are expelled at three times the rate that K-12 students are. We spoke to Kate Zinsser, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology at The University of Illinois at Chicago and author of the forthcoming book "No Longer Welcome: The Epidemic of Exclusion From Early Childhood Education" (Oxford University Press, Spring '22), about this educational crisis, and what can be done about it.

The big problem, Dr. Zinsser notes, is that preschool teachers lack the resources to help them with the challenges many preschoolers present. Think of a child in kindergarten or first grade who's struggling with letter recognition or early math behaviors. We pile on all the resources and help them get caught up on phonetic awareness and being able to match sounds with letters. We have curriculum and interventions in place to help that child.

"But when a child is struggling with sharing, or controlling their emotions or expressing how they're feeling, it seems like the reaction is to remove them from the exact setting that will help them develop those skills."

It's important to note that sometimes kids are expelled or suspended for good reason: "We've heard of kids who've thrown chairs at teachers, kids who have been swallowing staples that they pull off the bulletin boards-some really scary, distressing behavior." On the other hand, Dr. Zinsser says, sometimes kids are expelled because they won't nap, or they cry too much. "And the teachers just can't handle it."

And it's no wonder: Preschool teachers are among the most underpaid and undervalued workforces in the country. According to the 2018 Early Childhood Workforce Index report, in 2017 more than 50% of child-care workers reported receiving some form of government assistance. The median pay for a preschool teacher? Just $13.94 an hour.

Combine that financial stress with the absence of a support system, says Dr. Zinsser, and it shouldn't come as a surprise that bias plays a role in suspensions and expulsions: "There's evidence in the medical literature and in the education literature that our biases are heightened when we're under stress. And the early childhood workforce is one of the most consistently high stress workforces across our country. They come to work with a large load of stress, and then we're putting them into highly stressful, emotionally laborious interactions. So whenever I talk about bias, I have to emphasize the context that we've created, that will trigger our cognitive reliance on shortcuts."

That said, Dr. Zinsser adds, "There is experimental evidence showing that teachers look at Black children, waiting for them to misbehave, more than they look to white children. And they look to boys in particular. There's also evidence that when shown pictures of children's faces, that people in general tend to perceive Black faces as more guilty."

"But when a child is struggling with sharing, or controlling their emotions or expressing how they're feeling, it seems like the reaction is to remove them from the exact setting that will help them develop those skills." - Kate Zinsser, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago

And all people tend to over-age Black faces-so a Black child will be seen as older than his white counterpart. "If you look at two children who are both four, and you think that the 4-year-old Black boy is actually six, you're going to hold him to a much higher level of expectation for emotional regulation and behavior management than you would a white 4-year-old."

Race isn't the only issue that plays into bias: "We're also seeing that some children who have IEPs [individualized educational plans] and IFSPs [individualized family service plans] are still also more likely to be excluded. And there's some evidence that children who have experienced adversity and trauma are more likely to be expelled." So the children who need the support the most are at the highest risk for losing it.

The effects of expulsion can be devastating. "We know from K-12 research that expulsions beget expulsions: children who experienced expulsions are more likely to have those incidences happen again in the future." When students are expelled, they begin to view themselves in a more negative light - sometimes as a threat to others.

The earlier that expulsion occurs, Dr. Zinsser tells us, the more deep-seated that perception is going to become. "One of the families that I interviewed, their son was expelled or pushed out of seven different programs in a two-year time span. Now as a 6-year-old, he points out the [car] window and says, 'Oh, that's the place that didn't want me.' And that's going to be part of [his] self-identity and self-narrative."

The consequences of expulsion aren't solely relegated to children - parents deal with the aftereffects, as well. "In our most recent survey of administrators, we're estimating that upwards of 20% of the kids who were excluded from the programs didn't go into another program after that. They just stayed home. So you think about how much is being lost, both for that child in terms of learning and social opportunities, but also for that family in terms of reliable childcare and being able to go to work." And moving forward, parents are likely to be wary and distrustful of a system that they feel has failed them, which can affect children and families years down the line, especially in the early grade-school years, when the teacher/parent relationship is crucial.

So what's to be done about this problem? Pay preschool teachers a living wage, says Dr. Zinsser, and treat them as professionals. Give them the same supports available to kindergarten and above. "Think [about] a year later when that child is five and they step into a school system for that child presenting with the exact same needs, because we haven't really been able to address it in early education. They're, by law, going to have access to a school psychologist or social worker. They're going to have access to individualized education plans. We're really leaving our preschool teachers and our center-based care providers and our home-based care providers hanging out there on their own, because they don't have that professional safety net."

What do you do if it's your own kid who might be facing suspension or expulsion? The first thing to do, advises Dr. Zinsser, is talk with the teacher, in as open and non-defensive way as you can. "Treat the teachers like the professionals they are." If they have a good collaborative relationship with you and they see that you are working hard to try to get to the bottom of whatever's going on, then they're far more likely to bend. "I've never heard of a program expelling a child when the parents and the teachers get along."

Indicate that you're willing to have the child be observed by a mental health consultant. If they're recommending that the child get evaluated for early intervention, begin that process and be communicative about what you've already done so the program knows that you're holding up your end of it. And if you can, observe the classroom. "It's harder now during COVID, but if there are ways to make that possible, I think that can give parents and teachers a lot more to work off of and help build some empathy across those two communities."

More than anything, the expulsion crisis indicates a need for real change. "Less than 2% of kids have a major nut allergy, and yet we have overhauled school lunches. But we didn't do that kind of structural change to be able to accommodate and meet the needs of kids who are struggling emotionally and behaviorally in the classroom, in many ways that are very typical for a two, three, or four-year-old. We shouldn't have a system that's so broken that this is the way we handle it."

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Preschool Expulsions Shine Light on Inadequate Pay, Lack of Resources, Absence of Support Systems - Early Learning Nation

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As any of us know who've spent time with preschoolers, they can be highly challenging. They have strong opinions, but often lack the vocabulary and reasoning to cogently make their points. Instead, they might push, hit or bite - potentially injuring themselves or others.

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Groundbreaking research at Yale identifies young Pre–K students as being expelled at more than three times the rate of K–12 students

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Pre-K students are expelled at a rate more than three times that of children in grades K-12, according to a primary study by researchers at Yale on the rate of expulsion in prekindergarten programs serving three- and four-year-olds.

Led by Yale Child Study Center researcher Walter S. Gilliam, the study, titled "Pre-kindergartners Left Behind: Expulsion Rates in State Prekindergarten Systems," is based on data gathered in the National Prekindergarten Study (NPS). The paper reports on expulsion rates by program setting (public school, Head Start, private providers), gender, and race/ethnicity. The pre-K report also presents expulsion data from all 40 states that fund prekindergarten programs.

The study found that although rates of expulsion vary widely among the 40 states funding prekindergarten, state expulsion rates for prekindergartners exceed those in K-12 classes in all but three states. Prekindergarten expulsion rates vary by classroom setting. Expulsion rates are lowest in classrooms located in public schools and Head Start, and highest in faith-affiliated centers, for-profit childcare and other community-based settings. In classrooms where the teacher had no access to a psychologist or psychiatrist, students were expelled about twice as frequently. The likelihood of expulsion decreases significantly with access to classroom-based behavioral consultants that provide teachers with assistance in behavior management.

"No one wants to hear about three- and four-year-olds being expelled from preschool, but it happens rather frequently," said Gilliam. "Pre-K teachers need access to the support staff they need to help manage classroom behavior problems. Without this support, we are setting up for failure both our children and their teachers."

The study found that four-year-olds were expelled at a rate about 1.5 times greater than three-year-olds. Boys were expelled at a rate over 4.5 times that of girls. African-Americans attending state-funded prekindergarten were about twice as likely to be expelled as Latino and Caucasian children, and over five times as likely to be expelled as Asian-American children.

"Classroom-based behavioral consultation appears to be a promising method for reducing prekindergarten expulsion," said Gilliam. "When teachers reported having access to a behavioral consultant who was able to provide classroom-based strategies for dealing with challenging student behaviors, the likelihood of expulsion was nearly cut in half."

The lowest rates of expulsion were reported by teachers who had an ongoing, regular relationship with a behavioral consultant. In classrooms where the teacher had no access to a behavioral consultant, students were expelled about twice as frequently.

The NPS, completed by Gilliam and Crista M. Marchesseault of the Yale Child Study Center, is a comprehensive data collection effort across each of the nation's 52 state-funded prekindergarten programs operating in the 40 states that fund prekindergarten. A random sample of 4,815 classrooms, or about 12 percent of the total, was selected. There was an 81 percent response to interviews with the lead teacher responsible for day-to-day operation of the sampled classroom. The NPS has an overall margin of error of less than two percent.

A policy brief that summarizes findings from the study was supported by the Foundation for Child Development, the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation, and the Schott Center for Public Education. The study, written by Walter S. Gilliam and Crista M. Marchesseault of the Edward Zigler Center for Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University, was funded by the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation. The NPS was funded by grants from the Foundation for Child Development and the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), with funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Additional embargoed material for the study is available online at www.fcd-us.org/news/embargoed. Available materials include the full report, policy brief and supplemental state pre-K expulsion fact sheets for the states funding prekindergarten. For further information, please contact Harold Leibovitz at 212-213-8337 ext. 203.

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Pre-K Students Expelled at More Than Three Times the Rate of K-12 Students

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Pre-K students are expelled at a rate more than three times that of children in grades K-12, according to a primary study by researchers at Yale on the rate of expulsion in prekindergarten programs serving three- and four-year-olds. Led by Yale Child Study Center researcher Walter S.

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Data from the Federal Government is analyzed, showing that 47 percent of the preschoolers who received suspensions or expulsions in the 2013-14 school year were African American, even though they made up only 19 percent of preschool enrollment.

More information on the Federal data for the 13-14 school year can be found here: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/2013-14-first-look.pdf

See a visualization of this data here: https://eduequityforall.com/preschool-to-prison-pipeline-data/

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Several years ago, when Zakiya Sankara-Jabar’s 3-year-old son was repeatedly suspended from preschool, she felt like a bad parent. “I started to think that there was something inherently wrong with my son,” says Sankara-Jabar, who is now a parent advocate for race equity in schools. Her son was eventually expelled from his preschool, forcing Sankara-Jabar to drop out of college. While she now knows that their experience was likely due to implicit biases, it’s little consolation. In a phone interview with the author, Sankara-Jabar recalled the ordeal as “a lot of toxic stress and trauma, not just for the children but even for the parents.”

In the wake of pioneering research by Yale University’s Walter Gilliam, the federal government started collecting data on public preschool suspension and expulsion in 2011. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education, 47 percent of the preschoolers who received suspensions or expulsions in the 2013-14 school year were African American, even though they made up only 19 percent of preschool enrollment. In total, nearly 7,000 3- and 4-year-olds were suspended or expelled from public preschools during the same school year.

This column highlights four of the most important, and disturbing, facts to know about preschool suspension and expulsion.

1. It pathologizes normal child behavior

Children at the young ages of 3 or 4 often test boundaries and act out, particularly when adjusting to new social environments such as preschool. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, it’s perfectly normal for a preschooler’s frustration or anger to manifest as physical conflict. When caregivers correct this ordinary behavior in a way that promotes empathy, it’s a healthy part of a child’s social development. Labeling a young child as violent or disruptive and calling parents to pick up their child sends the wrong message to the child, and it could even lead to unnecessary medical or psychological interventions.

In Sankara-Jabar’s case, that was the course that her son’s preschool recommended. Although her son’s tantrums were typical for his age, the preschool asked that he be evaluated in a medical setting. When she refused, she was told she would need to find another preschool for her son. Quite often, this is what preschool expulsion looks like.

In working with other parents on this issue, Sankara-Jabar says, “I have seen parents get bullied into medicating their children and signing them up for special needs classes. And this is more pronounced with African American boys.” Yet in 2014, an Indiana University analysis of the literature on racial differences in child behavior showed that children of color and white children act out at the same rates.

2. It can be driven by implicit racial bias

Last year, in a study that used sophisticated eye-tracking technology, Yale researchers led by Gilliam found that preschool teachers tend to more closely observe African American children than white children when they are expecting challenging behavior. The researchers believe that this could help explain the disproportionate levels of discipline experienced by African American boys, who represent 19 percent of male enrollment but receive 45 percent of male suspensions.

Researchers describe this error in judgment as implicit bias, and it can be observed in preschool teachers of all races. In fact, the study found that African American teachers held African American students to a higher standard of behavior than white teachers. As an advocate, Sankara-Jabar has noticed this bias, saying, “It’s almost like people have sort of been socialized that African Americans, and African American males in particular, are just inherently bad. Like they’re born bad.”

3. It’s more common in school districts that still use corporal punishment*

The new CAP analysis also finds that in the same school year, schools that reported using corporal punishment as a disciplinary tactic suspended or expelled preschoolers at twice the rate of schools that did not use corporal punishment. To be clear, these schools are not necessarily using corporal punishment in their preschool classrooms. Nonetheless, this finding reflects an institutional reliance on harsh discipline rather than the more effective practice of redirecting disruptive behavior. When teachers are given the supports and the right tools to help children with challenging behavior, they can lower rates of hyperactivity, restlessness, and externalizing behaviors.

4. It may be an even bigger problem in private preschools

The only recent data available on preschool discipline comes from public schools. But as in Sankara-Jabar’s case, it is likely that most instances of suspension and expulsion happen in private preschools. In her experience, Sankara-Jabar notes that “this becomes a child care nightmare for parents because their kids are constantly being kicked out of these private preschools.” The only study that has collected data on disciplinary rates in private preschools found that in 2005, the rates of expulsion in private preschools were twice as high as those seen in public preschools. Without accountability and reliable data reporting, private preschools remain free to discriminate against families of color.

Conclusion

In recent years, the positive effects of high-quality preschool have been repeatedly documented. As more cities and states attempt to provide public preschool, strong civil rights protections must be in place to ensure that the destructive practice of preschool suspension does not become more widespread. Meanwhile, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the office responsible for collecting data on the practice in public schools, has been targeted by the Trump administration for downsizing. Furthermore, researchers have yet to fully diagnose the scope of the problem in private preschool settings.

The good news is that with the right training and professional supports for preschool teachers, the normal yet challenging behaviors of 3- and 4-year-olds can be redirected in positive ways that help them develop the social and emotional skills necessary for learning. Armed with the new cutting-edge research on implicit bias in preschools, many early educators are working hard to end the practices of suspension and expulsion. After all, preschool should be a welcoming place where children grow and develop normally, free from society’s stereotypes and prejudice.

* Note: Author’s calculations using the U.S. Department of Education’s 2013-14 Civil Rights Data Collection. For more information on preschool suspension and expulsion, see “Point of Entry: The Preschool-to-Prison Pipeline.”

Rasheed Malik is a Policy Analyst for the Early Childhood Policy team at the Center for American Progress.

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4 Disturbing Facts About Preschool Suspension

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Research finds that implicit bias begins in preschool and may explain disproportionate suspension rates for African American boys.

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The Federal Government begins collecting data on public preschool suspension and expulsion.

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Illinois Public Act 100-0105 Preschool Expulsion Legislation is implemented. As of January 1, 2018, programs funded by the Illinois State Board of Education or licensed by the Department of Children and Family Services must make every possible effort to retain a child, document their use of any and all available resources, services, and interventions.

If and when a program has exhausted all available resources and made substantial efforts to retain a child, only then, and with parental permission, is it now permitted to transfer the child to another program.

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Illinois Cannabis Tax Act passed

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Workforce Pipeline Development Policy Memo released

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The Executive Director of the Collaboration for Early Childhood takes part in the Barbara Bowman Early Childhood Leaders Fellowship.

https://www.erikson.edu/policyleadership/ecla/barbara-bowan-fellows-alumni/