Ontario will stop suspending children from junior kindergarten to Grade 3, a practice that has been shown to disproportionately impact Black students.
A 2017 study by Carl James, the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community, and Diaspora at York University’s Faculty of Education, reported Black students were more than twice as likely as other racialized and white students to be suspended at least once before graduating from high school. The study suggested 42 per cent of Black students were suspended at least once by the time they graduated high school, compared to 15 per cent for other racialized students and 18 per cent for white students.
“It’s long overdue, (and) will improve to break down systemic barriers that exist within the system of education,” he said.