RERCs Reveal Disparities Persist for Black Students in NC

DURHAM, N.C. (Sept. 10, 2025) – While North Carolina classrooms have been open for about a month, Southern Coalition for Social Justice’s (SCSJ) 2023–24 Racial Equity Report Cards (RERCs) show that students of color — disproportionately Black students — continue to face systemic racial disparities denying them equal experiences in school.  

The RERCs analyze data from the state of North Carolina to provide a snapshot of how school systems measure up in three key areas: career and college preparedness, short-term suspensions, and school-related juvenile delinquency complaints. They spotlight these categories because each is strongly linked to the school-to-prison pipeline. 

Across North Carolina’s 115 school districts — ranging from the smallest to the largest — the most recent data show that Black students continue to face stark disparities compared with white students. Black students make up about 25% of the state’s traditional K–12 enrollment, yet they are nearly four times more likely than their white peers to receive a short-term suspension and face higher rates of referral to the juvenile justice system. 

Read the most recent RERCs here. 

“North Carolina’s constitution guarantees every child an equal opportunity to a public education — but these numbers reveal that promise as hollow for far too many students of color throughout the state,” said Jake Sussman, Chief Counsel for Justice System Reform at SCSJ. “The disparities between the experiences of white students and Black students are shocking. We’re not just failing individual children; we’re systematically pushing them out of classrooms and continuing cycles of inequality that will affect generations to come.” 

• Across the state, white students in grades 3-8 were 2.1 times more likely to score “Career and College Ready” on final exams than Black students.  

• Asheville City Schools (Buncombe County) again had the worst disparity in the state, with white students 8.6 times more likely to score “Career and College Ready” on final exams than Black students. (Last year, that number was 10.7 times more likely.)  

• Across the state, Black students were 3.8 times more likely than white students to receive a short-term suspension.  

• Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools had the worst disparity in the state, with Black students being 17.6 times more likely than white students to receive a short-term suspension.  

• Other school districts with notable disparities showing Black students being more likely than white students to receive short-term suspensions include Vance County Schools (14.8 times more likely), New Hanover County Schools (9.2 times more likely), Asheville City Schools (Buncombe County) (8.4 times more likely), Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (7.5 times more likely), Yadkin County Schools (7.4 times more likely), and Durham County Schools (7 times more likely).  

• 28.7% of all juvenile delinquency complaints in the state were school-related.  

• In Tyrell County, 87.5% of all juvenile delinquency complaints in the county came from the Tyrell County School system. 

• Other school systems that had the largest impact on their local criminal courts (i.e., school-related complaints as a percentage of cases docketed in the local juvenile justice system), included Alleghany County Schools (86.4%), Lee County Schools (79.1%), Robeson County Schools (78.7%), Mitchell County Schools (77.3%), Bladen County Schools (76.8%), Henderson County Schools (75.3%), Yancey County Schools (75%), Lincoln County Schools (70.5%), Edenton-Chowan County Schools (62.9%), and Burke County Schools (61.5%).  

The RERCs are made possible through a partnership with Red Hat. 

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Southern Coalition for Social Justice, founded in 2007, partners with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the South to defend and advance their political, social, and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing, and communications. Learn more at southerncoalition.org and follow our work on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.