Comment on Study recommends prohibiting corporal punishment for some disabled students

A recent statewide study conducted by the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office of Research and Education Accountability (OREA) recommended prohibition of corporal punishment for some or all students with disabilities. Tennessee is one of 22 states that allow corporal punishment (CP) in public schools. The other 28 states and the District of Columbia have laws banning the use of CP. In July of 2017, some members of the Tennessee General Assembly requested that the OREA research the use of CP in Tennessee schools to determine if it is being used disproportionately for students with disabilities. Tennessee has 1,798 public schools, of which 907 are in districts that allow CP, and 433 of which actually reported using corporal punishment as a discipline option. Of those 433, only 208 schools used CP for both students with and without disabilities. The study found that between the 2009-10 school year and 2013-14 school year, the number of students without disabilities who received CP statewide decreased from 10,870 to 5,821, a reduction of 46 percent. Meanwhile the total number of disabled students statewide who received CP during that same period decreased from 1,540 to 1,428 — a reduction of only 7 percent. In all three reporting years, about 80 percent of the schools that reported using CP for students with and without disabilities used it at a higher rate for students with disabilities. Recommendations in the study: 1.