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The Milwaukee Public Schools district still expels Black students in higher numbers than any other group.
The findings come after the U.S. Department of Education announced last month it will investigate whether Milwaukee Public Schools uses race as a factor in expulsions.
MPS expelled 38 students in 2025-26, according to newly released district expulsion data. Of those students, 30 were Black. Black students made up 48% of the district and 79% of expulsions last school year.
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No white students, who represent 8.5% of the district’s student population, were expelled. Five Hispanic and three Asian students were expelled last school year.
In 2018, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights detailed findings from an earlier investigation into whether the district was disproportionately disciplining Black students.
Using data from the 2011-12 school year, the office found Black students made up 56% of MPS enrollment but 84.7% of its expulsions, including more than 100 incidents over two years where Black students were expelled while white students were only suspended for similar infractions.
MPS entered an agreement with the department to address the disparity in 2018.
MPS has received little information about what prompted the current investigation, according to the district. In a statement, the Department of Education said education leaders in Milwaukee “derided facially neutral school policies as reflecting systemic ‘whiteness,’ seemingly encouraging school officials to consider race in disciplinary practices.”
Kevin O’Connor, media relations manager for MPS, said the Department of Education has since requested MPS submit the district’s student enrollment and discipline data, student code of conduct, policies that “address discrimination based on race,” and staff training relating to race, discrimination and Title VI for the last two years, among other materials.
The Department of Education has declined to comment further on the issue, citing the open investigation.
Despite disparities, expulsions have declined
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During the 2010-11 school year, 415 MPS students were expelled. That number dropped to 116 in the 2016-17 school year before spiking again in 2018-19 to nearly 200. The number declined to a record low 23 in 2024-25 before increasing to 38 last school year.
O’Connor said the district has managed to significantly reduce its expulsions in the last 10 years as a result of initiatives including Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, Social Academic Instructional Group curriculum, peer mediations and other restorative practices.
“Our principals and school administrators build relationships with students and work closely with them,” O’Connor wrote in an email to NNS. “They are intentional about putting plans in place to proactively mitigate behavior that may impede a student’s ability to have a quality educational experience.”
O’Connor said the district provides alternative educational services for expelled students. Some options include online learning, moving to another school or, for students with disabilities, being placed based on their Individualized Education Plan, known as an IEP.
Why students were expelled
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Thirteen students were expelled for bringing weapons including firearms, BB guns and pepper spray, but over half the expulsions are grouped together in a general “other” category. Matthew Boswell, senior director of the district’s Department of Student Services, said in the board meeting that this mostly covers things like “substantial battery to staff.”
Monthly reports from the independent hearing officers who handle the district’s expulsions paint a more detailed picture behind the “other” category.
A third of all expulsions represented an “endangerment of physical safety and mental well-being,” but other offenses in the general category included theft, inappropriate use of electronic communication devices and arson.
Race can’t be a factor in discipline, Department of Education says
The Department of Education has stated it is not interested in what disparities are revealed in the numbers. Rather, it wants to see policies that are “facially neutral” or do not explicitly reference race.
The department’s new guidance argues that”facially neutral” discipline policies do not violate federal law even if they produce racial disparities, as long as they’re applied evenhandedly.
“Mere statistical disparities generally cannot show discriminatory intent or disparate treatment,” the guidance stated.
Angela Harris, an MPS teacher and chair of the Black Educators Caucus MKE, said it would be ridiculous for a child’s race to determine a consequence, but “if we’re seeing that there is a disparity that exists between how consequences are administered, that is absolutely something that we should be looking at.”
Harris said the district’s practice of examining trends of racial disparities and looking for potential biases in discipline decision-making is completely different from using race to decide how a child is disciplined.
“If the concern is that MPS is using race to determine an individual child’s punishment, then the Department of Education should be able to provide us what policy or practice is being referenced or that they found that is explicit in doing that,” she said.
Meredith Melland contributed to this report.
Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.
Despite federal probe, Black students remain disproportionately expelled at Milwaukee Public Schools is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
