Black and Latino parents of Boulder Valley School District students have been raising alarms for years that their children are punished more often for the same behaviors as white students. The district’s own data has consistently shown this disparity.
In 2020, under mounting pressure, BVSD reformed its discipline policies to try to reduce inequities. It removed police from schools, streamlined punishment guidelines across classrooms, and trained educators to de-escalate and resolve conflicts without resorting to punishment.

Since the reforms, fewer students have been suspended or referred to police. But the disparities that prompted the new policies remain. 

Latino students were about 3.5 times more likely to be suspended than white students during the 2021-2022 school year, according to data provided to Boulder Reporting Lab by the district. That figure reflects a disparity dating back more than a decade. 

While Latino students made up nearly 20% of BVSD’s 29,000 students, they accounted for about 44% of the suspensions.
The data indicate Latino students are generally punished for the same behaviors as their white peers — threats of physical harm, disobedience, fighting, possessing tobacco and marijuana. 

Suspensions and police referrals can have lasting impacts on young lives. Such punishment reduces the odds of graduating, makes it harder to excel academically, and increases the chances of entering the criminal legal system. 

“There has not been progress,” said Noemi Lastiri, member of the Latino Parent Advisory Council, which the district set up to advise it on equity issues. “Kids in high school keep complaining that they are not treated equally by teachers or by staff.”