April 13th, 2017 by WCBC Radio

A bill to discourage schools from suspending and expelling Maryland’s youngest students — including preschool students as young as 4 years old — has passed in Annapolis, but has yet to be signed into law.Democratic Sen. Will Smith of Montgomery County says his bill was inspired by education advocates who presented him with data on the rate of school suspensions and expulsions among elementary school-aged children. “There were some real disparities revealed when you started thinking about who was being suspended,” Smith said.

According to the data supplied to lawmakers, there were more than 2,300 expulsions and suspensions statewide among students in the pre-K to second grade age group in the 2015-16 academic year.