Corporal Punishment in K-12 Schools in the US

Corporal punishment—physical punishment of children for disciplinary purposes—in schools is still legal in about 70 countries, including the US (legal in 15 states as of 2020). Over the last five decades, the amount of corporal punishment (CP) declined dramatically across the country, largely driven by state-level bans in the use of CP in schools that began in the northeast in the 1970s. Yet, racial/ethnic disparities in the CP persists to this day. We show a snapshot of how state-level trends in CP by race/ethnicity has varied over the last decade in this brief. For a more in-depth, nationwide, comparative analysis of CP and other school discipline disparities over the last five decades in the US, see our latest data visualization published recently in Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World.

Note. The 2020-21 data collection was amidst the COVID-19 pandemic when many schools were closed for some or all year in person, likely affecting the school discipline outcomes reported. Please interpret with caution.