World | Tue Jun 7, 2016 1:06pm EDT

Black students more likely to be suspended: U.S. Education Department

Black students are almost four times more likely to be suspended from public school than white students, part of persistent disparities in U.S. schools, according to U.S. Education Department data released on Tuesday.

The department's Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2013-14 school year showed that the higher rate of suspensions come as black students are more likely than whites to be absent and to have inexperienced teachers, and are less likely to have access to science and math courses.

Education Secretary John King said the disparities shown in the survey of 96,000 schools and 50 million students underscored the continuing need to improve equity in U.S schooling.

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About 1.1 million black K-12 students were suspended, a rate 3.8 times that of white students. Black preschoolers were 3.6 times more likely to be suspended than whites, the data showed.

Black K-12 students also were 1.9 times more likely to be expelled from school than white students.

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