Commission highlights preschool discipline disparities, urges national standards to 'prevent, not detain'

The U.S. Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys on Thursday previewed its 2025 annual report and urged federal and local action to stop what it called a school-to-prison pipeline that begins in early childhood. Chairwoman Frederica Wilson opened the meeting with the commission’s theme: “prevention, not detention.”

Director Mark Spencer, who delivered the report summary, said the commission’s researchers found that “disproportionate discipline for Black boys begins in preschool.” Spencer told commissioners that Black male preschoolers comprised about 9% of public school enrollment yet “accounted for nearly a third of expulsions and out-of-school suspensions” in the 2020–21 school year. He said subjective and minor offenses often drive those exclusions and that parents are sometimes left out of the process.

The report links the early removal of children from school to long-term education and justice outcomes. “When young children are taken out of the school environment…they can fall significantly behind,” Spencer said, warning that gaps that begin before third grade may never be fully closed.

Spencer also highlighted the role of law-enforcement presence in schools, saying statistical trends show that school resource officers and other law-enforcement personnel are associated with higher referrals into the criminal justice system. He recommended clearer memoranda of agreement to define officers’ responsibilities and cautioned that officers “are not trained to be educators or disciplinarians.”

Among the commission’s recommendations is a national school-discipline matrix to standardize responses to student behavior, reduce arbitrary expulsions and suspensions, and preserve class time for learning. The report also calls for improved and consistent data reporting across states and localities; Spencer told commissioners the researchers found wide variation in how jurisdictions collect and disaggregate discipline data by race and ethnicity.

The commission described a separate strand of work on historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), noting a response to the White House HBCU initiative and a “10 plan” the commission recommends to support enrollment and completion among Black men. Chairwoman Wilson said many HBCUs have substantially higher female enrollment and emphasized outreach and role-modeling as key to encouraging more men to enroll.

Administrative items included proposed fiscal year 2026 meeting dates. The chair asked members to approve the meeting agenda at the start of the session; the group responded in the affirmative by voice and the chair noted approval. Director Spencer said the annual report has been published and distributed to commissioners and is available on the commission’s website.

The meeting closed with no formal decisions beyond the agenda approval; commissioners were invited to submit edits or questions to staff by email. The commission indicated it plans further follow-up on the report’s recommendations and possible site visits, including outreach to prisons to hear directly from incarcerated Black men and boys.