Sec. 2. Findings

308 words·~1 min read·/bill/116/hr/727/ih/section-2

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

Congress finds the following: Behavioral interventions for children must promote the right of all children to be treated with dignity. All children have the right to be free from any corporal punishment. Safe, effective, evidence-based strategies are available to support children who display challenging behaviors in school settings. School personnel have the right to work in a safe environment and should be provided training and support to prevent injury and trauma to themselves and others.

According to the Department of Education’s Technical Assistance Center on School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Support, outcomes associated with school-wide positive behavior support are: decreased office discipline referrals, increased instructional time, decreased administrator time spent on discipline issues, efficient and effective use of scarce resources, and increased perception of school safety and sustainability through a team approach. Every 30 seconds during the school year, a public school student is corporally punished.

Nineteen States continue to permit corporal punishment in public schools. According to Department of Education statistics, each year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of school children are subjected to corporal punishment in public schools. School corporal punishment is usually executed in the form of paddling , or striking students with a wooden paddle on their buttocks or legs, which can result in abrasions, bruising, severe muscle injury, hematomas, whiplash damage, life-threatening hemorrhages, and other medical complications that may require hospitalization.

Gross racial disparity exists in the execution of corporal punishment of public school children, and African-American schoolchildren are disproportionately corporally punished. The most recent available statistics show that African-American students make up 18 percent of the national student population, but comprise 40 percent of all students subjected to physical punishment at school. Black children are nearly two-and-a-half times more likely to be corporally punished than White children, and nearly eight times more likely to be corporally punished than Hispanic children.