
Iruka co-edits special issue of Early Childhood Quarterly focused on advancing the science of early childhood expulsion prevention
While early childhood experts agree that school expulsion is an ineffective behavior management strategy, each year more than 17,000 children aged three to five—largely boys and Black, Latine, and Native American children—are permanently removed from preschools. Recognizing the negative impacts of exclusionary discipline, Iheoma U. Iruka, PhD, co-edited Early Childhood Research Quarterly’s “Special Issue: Advancing the science of early childhood expulsion prevention,” which was published online in September 2024. The issue includes 11 journal articles focused on “understanding, disrupting, or reducing the use of exclusionary discipline and promoting the inclusion of diverse learners, especially racially and ethnically minoritized children and children with disabilities.”
Iruka serves as a faculty fellow at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) and is the founding director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at FPG. A tenured full professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, Iruka collaborated on this publication with co-editors Katherine Zinsser, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago and Alysse Loomis, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Utah.
“We know more today that suspending and expelling young children is not a solution and creates more harm,” says Iruka. “This is not a child issue but an adult issue that requires an effective, equitable, and sustainable solution that ensures children are in environments that protect, promote, and preserve their well-being, learning opportunities, and curiosity about the world.”
Exclusionary discipline—which includes expulsion, suspension and other restrictions on a child’s access to school—can have significant negative impacts on children's learning and connection to school and may increase the likelihood of school suspensions and expulsions later in the child’s educational journey. The publication notes that, over time, repeated exclusionary experiences may be compounded, leading to an increase in the likelihood of a child encountering the juvenile justice system, colloquially called “the preschool-to-prison pipeline.”
The purpose of the special issue
Most research focuses on children in kindergarten through 12th grade even though young children are three times more likely to be expelled from preschool than school-age children are from elementary school through high school. The special issue of the journal was designed to respond to emerging but fragmented research on exclusionary discipline in early childhood education.
Iruka and her fellow guest editors have highlighted research studies of effective practices, policies, and innovative approaches that eliminate exclusion and disproportionality in discipline and support children in a variety of early learning environments. The issue highlights a range of methodological approaches to studying this phenomenon and the work of research-practice-policy collaborative teams.
Themes from special issue articles
In their articles, the diverse authors focus on a range of themes including:
- the importance of examining the impact of suspension and expulsion on families;
- the causes that result in exclusionary practices;
- evidence-based programmatic strategies that show promise in addressing this issue; and
- changing policies to address exclusionary practices in early childhood education.
“We know more today that suspending and expelling young children is not a solution and creates more harm,” says Iruka. “This is not a child issue but an adult issue that requires an effective, equitable, and sustainable solution that ensures children are in environments that protect, promote, and preserve their well-being, learning opportunities, and curiosity about the world.”