Out-of-school suspensions and expulsions are increasing in Baltimore City, with numbers exceeding both pre-and-post-pandemic figures.
District leaders say the increase corresponds with spikes in behavioral issues and violent incidents in school buildings, which forced them to revise the student code of conduct to allow principals more disciplinary power.
In an October presentation to the city school board, officials said that the out-of-school punishments increased by 23% in the 2022-23 school year. City schools CEO Sonja Santelises said those numbers will only rise this year under the revised student code.
“I'm just telling you now, you're going to see an increase in suspensions, because of the increase in violence, the increase in certain behavior,” Santelises said at a city council hearing on school safety in late January. “We don't want to over-suspend children. But at the same time, we also know sometimes with a safe climate, principals need that flexibility.”
But advocates, elected officials and students themselves question the efficacy of out-of-school punishments — and raise concerns about the negative effects caused by keeping students out of the classroom.
Councilmember Antonio Glover said that suspended students often need additional education and well-being support that they’re not getting.
“Are we suspending them to a vacation at home, or are we suspending them to resources that they need?” Glover asked at the January hearing. “Just suspending a kid, having them stay home to be on YouTube or on social media, that's not cutting it. If we’re doing suspension, we need to suspend those individuals to organizations that are out there doing the work to help out young people.”
Holistic Life Foundation is one of those organizations. The Baltimore-based nonprofit, established in 2001, runs “mindful meditation” rooms in six city schools with the goal of de-escalating conflicts and reducing punitive measures.
The nonprofit’s website says that one year of their program decreases school suspensions by 72%. Holistic Life representatives did not respond to requests for clarification on this figure.
“The reason why the Mindful Moment program helps bring down suspension numbers is the simple fact that kids learn how to self regulate, they learn who their stressors are,” said Atman Smith, one of Holistic Life Foundation’s three founders. “We’ll talk to them about stress and how the stress plays out in their body, like who stresses them out? And when you do get stressed out, what do you do? Do you clench your fists? Do you clench your jaw? Then we give them a practice, whether it's a breath or meditation, and that helps them get back to homeostasis.”
Then, Smith says, students rely on those skills the next time a situation triggers them — instead of lashing out.
Santelises said in the January hearing that the district wants to offer alternative strategies, like Holistic Life’s practices, in every school. But there are often barriers in resources, like staffing and funding.
“We knew that an area we needed was building far more capacity to reach more schools,” she said. “It's one thing to start as pilots, it's one thing to give initial training, but the actual on-the-ground coaching was something that we were hearing from schools who were not as advanced in the implementation that they needed.”
City councilmember James Torrence called for reports reviewing the district’s suspension system — specifically, policies about incidents that occur off-campus — by June.
Advocates worry suspensions stunt education, fuel absenteeism
Baltimore City is not alone in the post-pandemic suspension uptick. In 2022, New York City public schools issued 27% more suspensions than they did the previous year. Statewide suspensions in Colorado rose by 16% that same year.
The Maryland statewide total number of suspensions rose by just over 21% last school year.
Percy Joyave, a student at Benjamin Franklin High School, said out-of-school punishments cause students to fall behind.
“You're sent home with a bunch of work, and you're expected to get it done by the time you get back to school,” he said. “I feel like it doesn't really fit in with like some kids and how their brains work.”
That effect is exacerbated for students with disabilities, Joyave said. He has ADHD and dyscalculia, which inhibits his ability to understand numbers.
“When I was suspended, I was in-school suspended,” he said. “I was able to get the help that I needed. While other kids who were suspended out-of-school, they can't get their help. Like, what if they don’t have a parent?”
Baltimore City officials noted in their October presentation that the district has made progress in bridging gaps in suspension rates by gender, race and ability. But disabled students, male students and Black students are still overrepresented in out-of-school suspension and expulsion numbers. And the number of Hispanic students facing suspensions is increasing.
Joyave says he notices the disparities.
“You see more students that are Black or Hispanic or mixed getting out-of-school suspensions or expulsions just for doing something that they want to stand up for,” he said. “One kid at my school got suspended for almost a full month because they didn’t like that we have to use clear backpacks.”
Jayvanay Blessett, a Patterson High School student, said enforcement of the code of conduct can vary from school-to-school.
“For my school, there’s a uniform policy. You can get suspended for not wearing your uniform,” she said. “And I know not every school is like that.”
Ali Smith, one of Holistic Life’s founders and brother of Atman Smith, said high suspension and expulsion rates for students of color and those with disabilities “lead into incarceration rates.”
The concept of the “school-to-prison pipeline” — drawing connections between discipline measures like suspensions and involvement in criminal activity — is supported by preliminary and evolving research.
“Kids are used to everything being punitive, starting at a very early age you’re just getting punished for stuff, like whether it's in school, and whether it's getting into criminal justice system,” Ali Smith said. “A lot of their power gets stripped away from them.”
Maryland education leaders also worry about the connection between out-of-school punishments and absenteeism. In a state senate hearing on Jan. 18, Sue Fothergill, a senior research fellow at chronic-absenteeism-focused nonprofit Attendance Works, said the Maryland education department will report research findings by June.
“If a student is suspended, do we look at the data to say on the day of return, do they come back? Or do they start to miss more after being suspended?” Fothergill said. “The impact of suspension is not clearly understood.”
Over one-third of Maryland K-12 students missed 10% or more school days last year, with 54.1% of Baltimore City students hitting that mark to be considered chronically-absent.
The perks and limits of Holistic Life’s meditation model
Ali Smith says the problem isn’t students with behavioral issues — it’s students suffering from trauma. Unlike suspensions and punishment, meditation approaches students with a healing lens.
“You might be acting out of some trauma, something might happen and you’re used to getting suspended for that,” he said. “But if you can come to the mindful moment room, you can recenter yourself, you can self regulate, and then you can go back to class. And that's empowering, because you're in control of the situation.”
Holistic Life offers a variety of services for city schools, ranging from trainings for teachers to workforce development programs for students. But the crux of their work comes from in-school staff who run the “mindful meditation” rooms – and run conflict interference with 10-15 minute meditation interventions.
Veronica Smith is one of two staff at Carver Vocational Technical High School. She says she reaches 25-30 students each day.
“I get here at 7:45 in the morning, and by eight o’clock, I've already run on every floor, just meeting people, greeting them, just to let them know that I'm here and I'm available when they need me,” she said. “I do a lot of footwork.”
Teachers call her to pull students out of class who are experiencing behavioral issues for quick breathing exercises. A group of girls gathers in the room every day at lunch time for vision boards and conversation circles.
“When they tell you stuff, it's like, can I just take you home with me?” Veronica Smith said.
Students can be referred to the mindful meditation rooms, which Ali Smith calls “alternative to suspension” rooms, or they can walk in themselves.
Blessett, the Patterson High student, said the program was “pretty engaging” and helpful for students — especially the brief interventions.
“I've seen a lot of students talk about things that were going on in school, or what was stressing them out,” she said.
Patterson had a mindful meditation room last year. But it’s no longer there. Last year, the nonprofit began partnering with the Trauma Research Foundation on a Clinton Global Initiative project to expand their mindful meditation rooms to cities nationwide.
Atman Smith said Holistic Life still faces barriers to fully serving students.
“We're not counselors or social workers,” he said. “We teach people how to identify their emotions, and what practices to do to clear the mind, make the body a safe space, and tap into the inner peace. But there are certain trauma issues that we can't really counsel these kids about.”
Andres Gonzalez, the nonprofit’s third co-founder, said their work is also limited by systemic lack of resources outside of the school walls.
“It'd be nice if we could make sure all the kids had healthy foods and financial stability, so that they're not worried about their family paying rent, or their siblings eating,” Gonzalez said. “We can't do any of that type of stuff. So we just try to do what we can when we are with them, and provide them with the tools to help them help themselves.”
City schools CEO Santelises said the district is taking steps to address these holistic needs — and the need for more licensed mental health support. The number of community schools, which offer wraparound services to students and their families, is increasing, she said at the January city council hearing.
Alison Perkins-Cohen, the district’s chief of staff, said every school used to have at least one licensed social worker in 2019, back when the state began offering concentration of poverty grants.
“But it is a difficult area to hire,” she said. “And so there have been vacancies.”
Bri Hatch is also part of the Baltimore News Collaborative, a local newsroom partnership exploring the challenges and successes experienced by young people in Baltimore. The collaborative is supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. News members of the collaborative retain full editorial control.
