Developing Policy and Guidance on Suspension and Expulsion in Early Childhood Programs

The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services provided recommendations to support families, early childhood programs, and States to prevent and severely limit expulsion and suspension practices in early childhood settings.

On This Page

• Introduction
• General Recommendations for Getting Started
• Setting the Stage for Policy Development and Promoting Buy-In
• Reviewing Position Statements from Organizations
• Reviewing State Exemplars
• Developing Recommendations for Local Early Childhood Programs
• Creating and Reviewing Policy/Guidance Recommendations for States

Introduction

This guide was created based on the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U. S. Department of Education Policy Statement on Suspension and Expulsion Policies in Early Childhood Settings. It is intended to support States with developing policy/guidance to prevent and substantially limit suspension and expulsion practices in early care and education programs. The Policy Statement charges states and/or programs with carefully examining the recommendations to determine what policy/guidance is needed to reduce the number of young children who are removed or excluded from early care and education programs. States and/or programs may choose to use the entire template to guide policy/guidance development, or select one or more specific areas to address. For States developing policy and/or guidance, it is suggested that a cross-sector work group representing the State's early care and education partners collaborate in developing, reviewing, and implementing the policy/guidance.

To be effective, policy/guidance needs to be in place and monitored to reduce the number of young children who are suspended or expelled from early education settings. Policies guide, but do not ensure, that exclusionary practices will end. All policy/guidance should align with the Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department Education Policy Statement on Suspension and Expulsion Policies in Early Childhood Settings, and take into account statements developed by other organizations, including the NAEYC Joint Statement on Suspension/Expulsion, the American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement on Out-of-School Suspension and Expulsion, and Office of Head Start's Expulsion and Suspension Policy Statement. The U.S. Department of Education also issued Guiding Principles: A Resource Guide for Improving School Climate and Discipline in 2014. This particular document is focused primarily on K-12; however, it provides strategies and action steps for promoting equity, and reducing suspensions and expulsions in educational programs that could be helpful when developing early childhood policy/guidance.

General Recommendations for Getting Started

State or local policy/guidance is intended to be collaboratively written and implemented by early childhood programs. States and/or programs will determine whether to develop policy, guidance, or both. Both are intended to reduce the number of children who are suspended or expelled from early childhood programs. However, guidance documents serve as a "guide" or a set of recommendations, while policy is typically mandatory and enforceable. It is important to determine when policy (versus guidance) is needed; that all partners agree to policies; that they are aligned and not conflicting across sectors; and which programs have the authority to require adherence to suspension and expulsion policies.

Considerations

• Determine how you will engage your early childhood colleagues (including families) in this work. Determine how you will include all early childhood programs and/or agencies that work with young children (e.g., early intervention, early childhood mental health, child care, Head Start, public PreK).
• Determine what data you will need to review to identify programs that suspend or expel young children and/or that disproportionately suspend or expel young children of minority groups.
• Gather and analyze data from cross sector sources, including early intervention and early childhood mental health.
• Identify the intended audience.
• Determine if this will be a policy or a guidance document.
• Determine how the policy/guidance will be promoted and shared.
• Develop different policy/guidance formats for different audiences.
• Develop a plan for moving from policy/guidance to accountability.
• Determine the process and communication plan for development of policy/guidance with stakeholders.
• Develop an implementation plan for setting goals, collecting data and tracking progress to evaluate the policy/guidance that addresses:
  • the supports/resources necessary for implementing the policy/guidance,
  • the professional development activities needed to help teachers understand the underlying issues associated with suspension and expulsion (i.e., implicit bias), and
  • the kinds of professional development activities needed to assist teachers in implementing evidence-based practices designed to prevent, reduce, and manage young children's challenging behaviors.

  Setting the Stage for Policy Development and Promoting Buy-In

  An important step in developing suspension and expulsion policy development is to provide the rationale for its importance to promote buy-in among program administrators and practitioners, and ensure that policies are enforced.

  Considerations

  • Create a clear, cross-sector definition of suspension and expulsion, which includes "soft" suspensions.

  Preventing Suspensions and Expulsions in Early Childhood Settings: A Program Leader's Guide to Supporting All Children's Success includes examples of exclusionary practices in early childhood programs that may be helpful when defining suspensions and expulsions in your state or program.

  Defining Disproportionate Discipline: Understanding Common Measures includes information on measures that can be used to understand whether a program is disproportionality suspending or expelling children.

  Reviewing Position Statements from Organizations

  Considerations

  Review the various statements on suspension and expulsion in early education settings:

  • Joint Policy Statement from U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services on Expulsion and Suspension Policies in Early Childhood Settings
    • Provides recommendations for early childhood programs (e.g., developing policies, accessing technical assistance , setting goals and analyzing data).
    • Provides recommendations for state action (e.g., setting goals, analyzing data, investing in workforce preparation, establishing policies).

    Reviewing State Exemplars

    Considerations

    • Review state-specific policy/guidance on school-age suspension and expulsion to ensure alignment with proposal for early childhood suspension and expulsion policy and guidance. Explore components of school-age policy and guidance (such as documentation, specific steps in the process, expulsion hearings).
    • Review policy/guidance that has been developed regarding suspension and expulsion for other early childhood programs within the state as part of:
      • Child Care and Development Fund programs
      • Head Start Performance Standards
      • develop a clear definition of suspension and expulsion, including "soft" suspensions and other exclusionary disciplinary practices (e.g., sending child to another room, principal's office, asking parent to come get child early) in which a young child is removed from his/her assigned classroom and deprived of learning opportunities due to a challenging behavior. The definition should be develop through cross-sector partnerships (e.g., ECE, early intervention, mental health, medical community, families from diverse backgrounds).
      • develop a clear plan for communicating suspension and expulsion policies across sectors and engage families, child care programs, elementary schools that include classrooms for young children, the medical community, and other community partners.
      • determine a clear plan for collecting, analyzing, and reporting suspensions and expulsions (including "soft" suspensions and expulsions), to assess progress toward reducing suspensions and expulsions, particularly for Black children.
      • invest in workforce preparation and development to eliminate biases by revising state entry-level credentials, and establishing relationships with institutions of higher education (IHE), state mental health consultation, and developing career pathways for those in leadership positions (e.g., school principals, administrators).
      • establish and implement policies regarding program quality (e.g., staff-child ratios, developmentally appropriate practices, culturally and linguistically responsive practices), that are associated with reducing the occurrence of suspension and expulsion in early childhood programs. Review and eliminate policies that are discriminatory against children with disabilities who are included in these programs (e.g., policies that require children to be potty trained).
      • provide access to and support for learning from free resources designed to develop and scale up best practices such as:
        • Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
        • Center for the Social Emotional Foundation for Early Learning (CSEFEL)
        • Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention (TACSEI)
        • Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation

        Developing Recommendations for Local Early Childhood Programs

        Considerations

        • Develop and clearly communicate preventive guidance and discipline practices to all staff, families, and community partners.
        • Establish implementation processes and supports for preventive guidance and discipline practices.
        • Develop clear and consistent expulsion and suspension policy/guidance designed to drastically reduce or limit the use of exclusionary practices in early childhood settings. Policies and procedures should be clearly communicated to all stakeholders including staff, families, mental health providers, the medical community, and other community partners.
        • Provide access to technical assistance (TA) that focuses on preventing suspension and expulsion by:
          • promoting children's social-emotional and behavioral health, including a focus on preventing and managing children's challenging behaviors,
          • forming supportive and nurturing relationships with children,
          • conducting ongoing screening and developmental assessments to monitor children's overall development, with emphasis on social-emotional and behavioral health,
          • collaborating with community-based service providers (e.g., medical providers, mental health professionals, related service providers),
          • forming strong relationships with families, and
          • understanding implicit bias and its role in exclusionary practices.
          • Focus on providing professional development to prevent, reduce, and manage children's challenging behaviors; reducing or eliminating the number of suspensions and/or expulsions; or developing procedures for addressing challenging behaviors.
          • Track goal-specific data to assess progress.
          • Identify the analysis according to local issues
          • Define the analysis based on issues that are commonly associated with suspension and expulsion, including
            • percentage of Black children who are suspended or expelled;
            • percentage of teachers who have regular access to support services for implementing positive behavioral supports; or
            • percentage of behavioral incidences that require mental health consultation.
            • Preventing Suspensions and Expulsions in Early Childhood Settings: A Program Leader's Guide to Supporting All Children's Success
            • Center for the Social Emotional Foundation for Early Learning (CSEFEL)
            • Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention (TACSEI)
            • Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation

            Creating and Reviewing Policy/Guidance Recommendations for States

            State policy/guidance sets the direction for how Local Education Agencies (LEAs), schools, and early childhood programs develop and implement suspension and expulsion policy/guidance, and provide the necessary services and supports for staff to effectively address the social-emotional needs of young children. States should develop and has a process for period review of policy/guidance to ensure that requirements facilitate the reduction of exclusionary practices in early learning programs.

            Considerations

            • Determine how policy/guidance promotes and supports coordinated and culturally and linguistically responsive comprehensive services across early childhood programs, including health, mental health, and other social services.
            • Determine how to best promote policy/guidance to build statewide infant and early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC) systems as well as social-emotional models and frameworks, including Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS); Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL); Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS); Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention (TACSEI) that offer programs support so that:
              • all children can be successful and fully included in educational settings, and
              • teachers, providers, and families have the skills and knowledge needed to promote success.
              • Kirwan Institute: Includes many resources on bias including a training module on implicit bias.
              • Addressing Implicit Bias in the Early Childhood System
              • Statement from NAEYC on Implicit Bias
              • Class size and adult/child ratios,
              • Developmentally appropriate practice,
              • Culturally and linguistically responsive practices,
              • Staff credentials (teacher skills and knowledge related to classroom management), and
              • Supports provided to early care and education programs to effectively address children's behaviors.
              • how your policy will address prevention and reduction of exclusionary practices (e.g., QRIS, PD),
              • how incentives to programs will be provided to those who develop suspension and expulsion policies, and
              • how your practices and procedures will provide coordinated comprehensive services and supports across early childhood programs to promote the use of evidence-based practices that support the social-emotional health of young children and focus on preventing and managing children's challenging behaviors in a developmentally appropriate manner.
              • Determine how to promote policy/guidance so that future early learning initiatives within the State, including expansion of early childhood programs such as State pre-kindergarten, have specific policies and procedures to:
                • reduce or eliminate the use of exclusionary practices within early childhood programs, and
                • involve Early Childhood Councils, early childhood mental health, family organizations and other early childhood groups as appropriate in the decision-making process.
                • establishing partnerships with private early childhood programs,
                • ensuring that professional development and TA efforts span across public and private community-based programs (including center-based and family child care programs),
                • developing or revising competencies for all personnel standards, credentials, certifications, and licensure requirements to include a clear expectation that all providers have the knowledge about how and skills to address children's challenging behaviors in a preventative and developmentally appropriately manner, and
                • coordinating a statewide professional development system that offers cross-sector professional development and TA to all early care and education program that includes:
                  • coordinated professional development supports and coaching,
                  • collaboration with itinerant special education professionals,
                  • opportunities for family engagement,
                  • training and supports that are responsive to program needs,
                  • data collection and evaluation methods, and
                  • partnering with IHEs.

                  

                  • The ECTA Center is a program of the FPG Child Development Institute of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, funded through cooperative agreement number H326P220002 from the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent the Department of Education's position or policy. Project Officer: Julia Martin Eile
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                  The ECTA Center is a program of the FPG Child Development Institute of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, funded through cooperative agreement numbers H326P170001 and H326P220002 from the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent the Department of Education's position or policy. Project Officer: Julia Martin Eile

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