SOUTH PORTLAND, ME - MARCH 02: South Portland High School resource officer Alfred Giusto stands outside the main office as students exit for the weekend on Friday, March 2, 2018. (Photo by Carl D. Walsh/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Students of color and those with disabilities face encounters with law enforcement at school at a higher rate than their peers.

That’s according to an analysis of the latest student referral to police data from the Department of Education. The Center for Public Integrity in collaboration with USA TODAY and Univision examined these disparities on a national level.

An officer's badge is shown with the words "Criminalizing Kids: When schools call the police on students" over it.

About this series

Students of color and those with disabilities face encounters with law enforcement at school at a higher rate than their peers. The Center for Public Integrity in collaboration with USA TODAY and Univision examined these disparities on a national level.

Read more

In order to understand what’s happening in schools, communities need to understand student to police referrals on a local level.

That’s why we collaborated with media organizations across the country. We shared the data, our findings and our data reporting expertise when needed with the journalists who know their communities best.

Stories from our partners

Help support this work

Public Integrity doesn’t have paywalls and doesn’t accept advertising so that our investigative reporting can have the widest possible impact on addressing inequality in the U.S. Our work is possible thanks to support from people like you.

DONATE