Most disturbing is that the patterns of inequality first uncovered in Yale’s 2005 survey are repeated in data released last year by the Department of Education. For the first time in 2014, preschoolers were included in the department’s Civil Rights Data Collection on school discipline—and disparities abound. Black children accounted for 18 percent of preschool enrollment but almost half (48 percent) of the children suspended more than once; in contrast, white children were 43 percent of preschoolers, but only 26 percent were subjected to repeated suspensions. Likewise, boys comprised 54 percent of children in preschool programs, yet represented the vast majority of pre-K students suspended either once or multiple times.

In a recent blog post for the American Psychological Association, Gilliam zeroed in on the contradiction behind these staggering numbers. “There are some children who do not benefit from early-care and education programs—the ones not allowed to attend because they were kicked out,” he wrote, pointing to the widespread push for universal preschool and touted gains for low-income students of color, with scant attention given to instructional days lost to suspensions. “Access means entry … and it also means protection from having those same opportunities later denied.”

What makes preschool-age suspensions and expulsions further problematic is how out-of-school punishment feeds the school-to-prison pipeline.