Jimmy Simpson Jr. is partnerships lead and equity coach for YouthTruth, a national nonprofit that helps schools measure nonacademic indicators related to school climate and academic achievement. Recent federal, state, and local data reveals there’s still a lot of work to do when it comes to ensuring discipline policies and practices are fair and equitable for all, despite more than a decade of encouraging advocacy. 
Jimmy and the YouthTruth team wanted to know: What do students, parents/guardians and school staff think about discipline and fairness in their schools today?
To answer this question, YouthTruth analyzed the survey responses of more than 104,000 students, parents/guardians, and instructional and noninstructional school staff members across 132 secondary schools in a new report: Learning from Student and Stakeholder Voice: School Discipline.” Here are some of the key findings:
- Overall, students feel less positively about discipline than do families or staff.
- Stakeholders at high-poverty schools have similar experiences with discipline as do those at other schools.
- Students, families and staff of different races and ethnicities have different experiences with discipline and fairness.
- If one group of school stakeholders feels positively about discipline, other stakeholder groups in that school tend to agree.
- High school students and families feel less positively about discipline than do middle school students and families.