Sponsors
The bill aims to reduce discriminatory and exclusionary school discipline and expand mental-health supports through clearer rules, public data, enforcement, and federal funding—but it shifts substantial administrative and fiscal burdens to districts and taxpayers, raises privacy and safety trade-offs, and risks uneven implementation and litigation.
Students from marginalized groups (Black and Brown girls, students of color, students with disabilities, LGBTQI+ students, English learners, homeless and foster youth) will face fewer exclusionary suspensions and expulsions, reducing lost instructional time and narrowing racial- and disability-based discipline gaps.
Parents, communities, schools, and policymakers will get far better, standardized, and publicly accessible discipline data and definitions (including disaggregation), improving transparency, enabling targeted interventions, and making patterns of discriminatory discipline visible and actionable.
Students with disabilities will gain clearer protections—explicit cross-references to IDEA/Section 504 and tighter limits on restraints, seclusion, and corporal punishment—helping prevent improper criminalization and preserve civil-rights protections in discipline decisions.
Local school districts and taxpayers will face substantial new administrative and compliance costs—collecting, disaggregating, reporting detailed discipline data; updating policies; training staff; and hiring personnel—which may strain already tight local budgets if federal grants are insufficient.
Federal spending increases by roughly $1 billion per year to implement enforcement and programs, creating budgetary tradeoffs that could add to deficits or crowd out other priorities and depend on future appropriations.
Limits on exclusionary discipline and restrictions on school-based law enforcement or arming staff could make it harder for some schools to manage serious or dangerous student behavior if alternative systems and supports are not fully in place, raising safety concerns for teachers, staff, and families.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Requires annual federal tracking of exclusionary discipline, funds grants to end punitive practices, limits suspensions/seclusion/restraints, and creates a Task Force on pushout of girls of color.
Introduced April 8, 2025 by Cory Anthony Booker · Last progress April 8, 2025
Requires the Department of Education to track and report detailed data on exclusionary school discipline (suspensions, expulsions, arrests, referrals, seclusion/restraints, and related lost instructional time) and to publicly identify schools, districts, and states with patterns of discriminatory or excessive discipline. Creates competitive “Healing School Climate Grants” to replace punitive practices with trauma‑informed, culturally sustaining supports, bans many exclusionary practices (especially for young children and for subjective offenses), and sets strict limits on seclusion and physical restraints. Also creates a joint Education/HHS Task Force to study and recommend ways to end school pushout of girls of color, requires multi‑lingual and accessible public reporting, and authorizes $500 million per year for the grants and task force plus $500 million per year for expanded Office for Civil Rights data work (total authorization up to $1 billion per year).