ORCID

0009-0009-9915-7000

Keywords

School-to-prison pipeline, disabilities, teachers experience, staffing

Abstract

There is an overrepresentation of individuals with disabilities in the criminal and juvenile justice systems. Similar to the commonly known School-to-Prison Pipeline, Christoper Mallet has coined the term the Disabilities-to-Prison Pipeline to refer to this growing problem. Research has not yet determined how individual variables at the school or district levels lead to the expansion of the Disabilities-to-Prison Pipeline. Mallot (2021) presented three possible hypotheses to explain the expansion of this phenomenon: the differential treatment hypothesis, the school failure hypothesis, and the susceptibility hypothesis. There is a significant gap in the literature that focuses specifically on the differential treatment of students with disabilities.

This study focuses on individual school-level variables such as teacher experience, teacher race or ethnicity, teacher sex, the presence of guidance counselors and school psychologists, and the implementation of Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) and their correlation to school referrals to law enforcement, school-related arrests, and out of school suspensions for students with disabilities. The study employed a Pearson correlation to analyze the relationship between these variables. The study found that all teacher demographics were correlated with an increase in referrals, suspensions, and arrests for students with disabilities. In addition, the presence of school psychologists and counselors was also correlated with an increase in referrals, suspensions, and arrests for these students. These findings indicate that larger and better-staffed districts tend to refer more students with disabilities for exclusionary discipline. The implementation of PBIS had little to no effect on exclusionary discipline in schools for students with disabilities.

These findings suggest that systematic disciplinary issues such as punitive approaches to discipline or lack of restorative interventions, are not being effectively addressed through exclusionary discipline practices, such as suspensions or expulsions, which often remove students from the learning environment without resolving the underlying behavioral or structural issues..

Completion Date

2025

Semester

Fall

Committee Chair

Eleazar "Trey" Vasquez

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Community Innovation and Education

Department

Exceptional Student Education

Format

PDF

Identifier

DP0029828

Document Type

Thesis

Campus Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

Download

Share

COinS