In an effort to better understand longstanding racial and ethnic disparities in student punishment, the Boulder Valley School District has released a data dashboard that provides the most detailed glimpse yet into how the problem is playing out in each of its 57 schools. 

The dashboard, published in August, is a response to calls from Black and Latino parents who are concerned about their children being punished more harshly for the same behavior as white students. The new data indicate that BVSD’s Latino students are nearly three times more likely than white students to be suspended both in and out of school. (For out-of-school suspensions, it’s about 3.5 times, according to an analysis by Boulder Reporting Lab.)

Such disparities continue to be common across Colorado, despite extensive research showing that suspending students and referring them to police can reduce their odds of excelling academically and graduating. Punishment can also increase their odds of involvement with the criminal legal system. 

Like other districts in Colorado, BVSD has streamlined punishment guidelines across classrooms, removed police officers from schools, and trained staff on how to de-escalate and resolve conflicts among students without resorting to discipline. 

BVSD’s new data is among the most granular of any school district in the state. Denver Public Schools publishes discipline data by network, not by school. 

For the most recent 2021-2022 school year, Boulder High, the district’s largest school, had the highest disparities in suspension rates. Latino students were about 6.5 times more likely to be suspended than white students. While they made up about 25% of the school’s 2,139 students, they accounted for about 66% of the suspensions.