Suspended for...What?
2024 Investigative & Public Service (Education-Only Outlets) Winner
Sarah Butrymowicz, Fazil Khan, Meredith Kolodner, Gail Cornwall, Sara Hutchinson, Hadley Hitson, Madeline Mitchell, Amanda Chen, Tazbia Fatima, Tara García Mathewson & Nirvi Shah, The Hechinger Report, Montgomery Advertiser & Cincinnati Enquirer
About the Winners:
Research consistently shows that suspending students makes it more difficult for them to succeed academically and more likely they will enter the criminal justice system as adults. But no one could show how widespread the practice of suspending them for nebulous reasons was or whether it affected some students more than others. The Hechinger Report soon found out why: States don’t report this information to the federal government. In fact, some states don’t even collect it from their own districts.
The Hechinger Report spent the next year tracking down the data that did exist, submitting public record requests to states reluctant to provide it, poring through thousands of discipline records and speaking with dozens of parents, educators and policy makers. What the reporters found was a disturbing picture of patchwork and subjective disciplinary decisions that make up a third of all suspensions, along with astonishing racial and disability disparities.
Comments From the Judges:
“This series was really illuminating. What’s sad is the same outcomes of Black and disabled students disproportionately suspended at higher rates. I think the quality of work speaks for itself with the amount of data. Also the work that Fazil did on this was so critical and for those of us who followed him know how it was a labor of love. I am glad to see some impact here in what some cities did [after] being surprised by data.”
“This series from the Hechinger Report was [undoubtedly] a grand undertaking, needing many resources, staff and months to complete. The result is an investigation that illuminates the reality of overused suspensions in the U.S. The four stories were each well-done and had appropriate sourcing. I especially liked the solutions piece about a school district, LAUSD, that had succeeded in creating a more equitable discipline system, and I think it completed the series. The data collection was also very impressive.”
Photo credit: Meredith Kolodner & Sarah Butrymowicz/The Hechinger Report
