From Punishment to Support: Rethinking School Discipline Practices with Black Girls through a Trauma-Informed, Culturally Responsive, and Joy-Centered Framework

Background and Purpose:
Black girls are the only group of girls disproportionately suspended in U.S. schools (Office for Civil Rights [OCR], 2019). In Tennessee, they represent 21% of enrolled girls but account for 65% of multiple out-of-school suspensions (Joseph-McCatty et al., 2023). These disparities are not explained by behavior alone, but are shaped by racialized gender bias, adultification, and the compounded effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) such as parental incarceration, community violence, and racial discrimination (Epstein et al., 2017; Cronholm et al., 2015; Turner et al., 2020).

This study emerged from a university–community partnership between the PI who is a faculty member at the University of Tennessee and The FIND Design, a school-based nonprofit supporting Black and Brown girls in Nashville, TN. The study aimed to: (1) describe school discipline outcomes among girls in TN, (2) assess ACE prevalence among Black girls, and (3) examine access to school-based mental health professionals. Findings from this study informed the development of a framework called the FIND JOY Incubator. This framework is a trauma-informed, gender-responsive Tier 2 socio-emotional learning (SEL) intervention co-designed to support Black girls' emotional wellness, healing, and identity development in schools.

Methods:
This descriptive study used publicly available data from the Office for Civil Rights (2017–2018) and the National Children’s Health Survey (2016–2019). The sample included non-disabled girls aged 6–17 from diverse racial and ethnic groups, with a focus on Black girls in Tennessee. The analysis employed descriptive statistics, including measures of central tendency and risk ratios, to examine school suspension and expulsion rates, ACE prevalence, and school-based access to counselors, psychologists, and social workers.

Results:
Black girls were over four times more likely to receive at least one out-of-school suspension, and 15 times more likely to receive multiple suspensions than all other girls. They also had a higher risk of experiencing the following ACEs compared to all other girls: racial discrimination (3.33x), neighborhood violence (1.54 x) and parental loss (1.5x). We likewise found that access to mental health support in schools was limited. While 91% of girls attended a school with a full-time counselor, only 9% had access to a full-time school social worker. In contrast, 54% of girls attended schools with full-time law enforcement officers, indicating an imbalance between mental health care and disciplinary enforcement.

Conclusions and Implications:
Black girls in Tennessee experience a convergence of punitive school discipline and chronic adversity, yet have limited access to supportive services. Despite these inequities, many display strong indicators of resilience such as emotional regulation and academic persistence.

To address these gaps, this university–community partnership developed the FIND JOY Incubator, a Tier 2 SEL intervention composed of five core components: (1) Joyful Foundations
(2) Joyful Connections, (3) Joyful Growth, (4) Joyful Narratives, (5) Joyful Liberation. This work underscores the need for trauma-informed, culturally affirming interventions in school settings, and calls on school social workers to advocate for the wellness of Black girls over punishment.