United States HR 727: Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools Act of 2019

Bill Text

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116TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 727
To end the use of corporal punishment in schools, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 23, 2019
Mr. HASTINGS (for himself, Mr. COHEN, Mr. DESAULNIER, Ms. NORTON, Ms.
PINGREE, and Mr. RYAN) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Education and Labor
A BILL
To end the use of corporal punishment in schools, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ending Corporal Pun-4
ishment in Schools Act of 2019’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
(1) Behavioral interventions for children must 8
promote the right of all children to be treated with 9
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dignity. All children have the right to be free from 1
any corporal punishment. 2
(2) Safe, effective, evidence-based strategies are 3
available to support children who display challenging 4
behaviors in school settings. 5
(3) School personnel have the right to work in 6
a safe environment and should be provided training 7
and support to prevent injury and trauma to them-8
selves and others. 9
(4) According to the Department of Education’s 10
Technical Assistance Center on School-Wide Positive 11
Behavior Interventions and Support, outcomes asso-12
ciated with school-wide positive behavior support are: 13
decreased office discipline referrals, increased in-14
structional time, decreased administrator time spent 15
on discipline issues, efficient and effective use of 16
scarce resources, and increased perception of school 17
safety and sustainability through a team approach. 18
(5) Every 30 seconds during the school year, a 19
public school student is corporally punished. 20
(6) Nineteen States continue to permit corporal 21
punishment in public schools. 22
(7) According to Department of Education sta-23
tistics, each year in the United States, hundreds of 24
thousands of school children are subjected to cor-25
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poral punishment in public schools. School corporal 1
punishment is usually executed in the form of ‘‘pad-2
dling’’, or striking students with a wooden paddle on 3
their buttocks or legs, which can result in abrasions, 4
bruising, severe muscle injury, hematomas, whiplash 5
damage, life-threatening hemorrhages, and other 6
medical complications that may require hospitaliza-7
tion. 8
(8) Gross racial disparity exists in the execution 9
of corporal punishment of public school children, and 10
African-American schoolchildren are disproportion-11
ately corporally punished. The most recent available 12
statistics show that African-American students make 13
up 18 percent of the national student population, 14
but comprise 40 percent of all students subjected to 15
physical punishment at school. Black children are 16
nearly two-and-a-half times more likely to be cor-17
porally punished than White children, and nearly 18
eight times more likely to be corporally punished 19
than Hispanic children. 20
SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 21
The purposes of this Act are to— 22
(1) eliminate the use of corporal punishment in 23
schools; 24
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(2) ensure the safety of all students and school 1
personnel in schools and promote a positive school 2
culture and climate; and 3
(3) assist States, local educational agencies, 4
and schools in identifying and implementing effective 5
evidence-based models to prevent and reduce— 6
(A) corporal punishment in schools; and 7
(B) aversive behavior interventions that 8
compromise health. 9
SEC. 4. PROHIBITION AGAINST CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. 10
Subpart 4 of part C of the General Education Provi-11
sions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232f et seq.) is amended by adding 12
at the end the following: 13
‘‘SEC. 448. PROHIBITION AGAINST CORPORAL PUNISH-14
MENT. 15
‘‘(a) GENERAL PROHIBITION.—No funds shall be 16
made available under any applicable program to any edu-17
cational agency or institution, including a local edu-18
cational agency or State educational agency, that has a 19
policy or practice which allows school personnel to inflict 20
corporal punishment upon a student— 21
‘‘(1) as a form of punishment; or 22
‘‘(2) for the purpose of modifying undesirable 23
behavior. 24
‘‘(b) LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES.— 25
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In the case of an applicable 1
program under which a local