Biting, kicking, hurling blocks. Preschools struggle with California law limiting expulsion
Kristin Hills is at her wits' end with how to handle the behavior problems in her preschool classrooms.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, children at the state preschools she oversees in Mendocino County have been acting out. Biting has become more frequent among the 3-year-olds. Hitting and kicking is commonplace. A few children have started hurling wooden blocks and even chairs across the classroom. In at least a third of her 17 classrooms, she said, the behaviors may endanger other children and teachers.
In the past, Hills might have called a parent to come pick up their ill-behaved child early. Now her options are limited, and preschools like hers must manage difficult behaviors on their own.
California began passing a series of highly lauded laws that restrict state-funded child care centers from suspending or expelling children two years before the pandemic. The legislation was part of a national wave that followed a 2014 Obama administration statement condemning preschool expulsion and clarifying that the practice was banned at federally funded Head Start programs. At least 29 states now have policies restricting or eliminating exclusionary discipline.
"It was a great thing for California, and I believe it will be a great thing for children, especially small Black boys," said Khieem Jackson, co-founder of Black Men for Educational Equity, which co-sponsored the bill. "It's a tool that will help us mitigate the preschool to prison pipeline."
But the lingering effects of the pandemic on children's behavior has made for stressful times in many preschool classrooms, and early childhood educators say the new discipline regulations are proving difficult to implement. Schools must go through a specific series of steps and work with a family before removing a child from school, and families have a right to appeal such decisions, a process that can take more than 6 months. While most policies in other states apply to all types of child care settings, the California law only applies to programs receiving state funding; private preschools set their own rules.
"I don't know anyone who disagrees with the need for this. No one wants to suspend and expel children," said Hills. "But it's hard."
When a student acts out, Hills says there's little they can do. They can't call the parents to come pick up their child, something the legislation considers suspension. Even separating the child from the group is difficult, because the law requires that a fully qualified teacher be with them, rather than an aide. In her small centers, there just aren't enough high-level staff.
There is universal agreement based on decades of research that exclusionary discipline in preschool is harmful to children. One month ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement detailing the "dire" consequences of expulsion. The practice, they wrote, can cause lifelong harm and disproportionately affects children of color, children with disabilities, and children experiencing adverse childhood experiences, including poverty, abuse, neglect and instability.
The pediatrics academy statement also offered proven solutions. At such a young age, children's brains are still malleable, and teachers can learn to work with even the most severe behaviors. Studies suggest that providing classroom visits from mental health consultants, for example, can improve behavior and lower expulsion rates.
The California legislation provides additional funding to programs that hire mental health consultants. But some child care directors say the funding is not enough, and the shortage of mental health providers makes consultants difficult to hire.
Hills said that with intensive behavioral support, behaviors often improve. But the challenge is immediate.
"If I have a site supervisor who's melted down because she's got three kids who are melting down, I need to get her through the rest of her day before I can go searching" for a counselor, said Hills. "It's so easy to say here's this list of solutions, when you don't have time and energy to get to them because you're putting out fires every day," she said.
How many preschoolers are expelled?
A 2016 national survey of child health by the federal government showed that 17,000 3- and 4-year-olds had been expelled in the previous year, and another 50,000 had been suspended across public and private programs — a rate of about 250 children involuntarily leaving preschool each day, according to an analysis of the data by the Center for American Progress.
Black children were more than twice as likely to be expelled than white children, and children with a diagnosed disability or social-emotional challenge were a staggering 14.5 times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their peers, and 82% of the children suspended or expelled were boys.
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