The Path to Childcare and Preschool Expulsion

Purpose:

School systems, policy makers, and the public have begun to pay attention to the increasing rates of school suspension and expulsion and the detrimental impacts of these phenomena on academic achievement, socio-emotional development, and racial equality. Currently, children in preschool settings are expelled at three times the rate of those in grades K-12. Despite greater recognition of the problems of expulsion and promotion of early childhood learning, the high incidence and intersection of childcare and preschool expulsion has remained nearly invisible. Analyzing incidents of childcare and preschool expulsion in order to expand our knowledge beyond correlates and predictors, this research provides an understanding of the process of childcare expulsion, with the goal of furthering insight into what might be done to prevent it.

Methods:

 The data for this study originates from in-depth interviews with 30 childcare providers in three counties in southeast Michigan. Interviews were audio-taped and transcribed with analysis conducted in accordance with the principles of grounded theory. Using Nvivo 10, interviews were coded thematically by a research team to understand the process for childcare and preschool expulsion.

Findings:

 Our data suggest that both structural and cultural factors are at work in facilitating the process of preschool and childcare expulsion. While our participants described expulsions as unique events, we found that there was a regular process and pattern to them. The financial model of childcare in the US means most centers are maximizing the adult/child ratios and thus "batch process" the care of children, which requires children to adjust themselves to centers' routines. Further, caregivers who are underpaid and often undertrained, become exhausted and frustrated by challenging behavior and employ symbolic boundaries of good and parenting and families in order to facilitate the expulsion of a child. Once such boundaries are constructed, expulsion is imminent.

Implications:

   The rate at which preschool and child care expulsions are occurring suggests that this is a major problem to which the field of social work should turn its attention. Our data indicates that once children are started on the path to expulsion that it is difficult to prevent it from taking place. Childcare and preschool expulsion represents a form of educational and social exclusion for our smallest citizens. Social work as a field must ask: How can our youngest children be ‘too bad’ to participate in early childhood education? Preventing expulsions from childcare and preschool settings require more support from early childhood specialists and mental health providers, broader discussions about fit and mission, and a recognition that ultimatums and ‘strong arm’ tactics rarely are successful at keeping a child in a program. While the goal of this work is to prevent expulsions, our data also indicates that there are several short-term interventions that can be made if expulsions take place such as clear policies and procedures and creating a ‘good goodbye for the child and family that does not perpetuate a sense of shame at the outcome.