The SFUSD Shoestrings Program: A Wraparound Early Childhood Intervention to Disrupt Significant Racial Disproportionality in Discipline and Special Education

The SFUSD Shoestrings Program: A Wraparound Early Childhood Intervention to Disrupt Significant Racial Disproportionality in Discipline and Special Education

Preschool should be a place for learning and play—not punishment.

But in the U.S., preschoolers are suspended more than any other age group. And young Black boys are disproportionately affected, reflecting stark racial disparities in school discipline. How can early childhood programs begin to address these disparities? 

This case study spotlights San Francisco Unified School District's (SFUSD) Shoestrings program. The program is an innovative, community-designed early childhood intervention to address racial disparities in discipline and special education. This analysis can inform efforts by district leaders wrestling with high rates of, and disparities in, exclusionary school discipline and special education, practitioners seeking to design and implement similar programs, and researchers conducting similar evaluation studies of interventions to disrupt the preschool-to-prison pipeline.