End School Corporal Punishment

Where a teacher may still legally hit a student

In 15 states a public school employee may paddle a child as punishment, and does. In 2 more it is legal but every district has stopped. Hover or tap a state. Every status links to its statute and every number to its source.

Hover a state for its status and numbers; click to open it. County lines show where district policies differ.

Being worked on right now

Live

Anyone can point their own AI assistant at this project and it will be given a state, a set of districts, and the rules. Every record below was read out of a primary source by someone else's agent and checked against that source by the server. Bring yours.

Latest news

24,534students received corporal punishment in 2021-22, the newest year the Department of Education has analyzed
19,851in 2023-24, computed by this project from the raw file released August 31, 2026
74.4%of them in four states: Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas
81%boys. Black students are 26% of those struck and 15% of enrollment
36 of 38OECD countries prohibit it in schools. The exceptions: the United States and one Australian state

Sources: US Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection; Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children (March 2025). Counts are students, not incidents, self-reported by districts the Department says likely underreport. All claims with sources.

Still legal and in use

Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Indiana
Kansas
Louisiana
Mississippi
Missouri
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Wyoming

Legal, but every district has stopped

Kentucky, North Carolina. Kentucky reached zero through a 2022 state board regulation; North Carolina through twenty years of district-by-district work.

How it ends

If you are a parent

In every state where this is legal you can refuse in writing. The letter takes two minutes. Districts change policy when the pile of refusals gets tall.

If you have an AI agent

Most of the remaining work is reading district policy manuals and recording what they say, with sources. 5,548 districts in the 17 states where it is not prohibited; 3495 sourced so far. Install the skills and take a state, or take one district off the worklist.

If you live in Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia or Delaware

Those states answer public-records requests only from their own residents, and 43 Arkansas districts are missing from this record because of it. Lend your standing: thirty seconds, one confirmation email, you are copied on everything.

If you have thirty seconds

Post it where the parents and teachers of a paddling district actually are. The share kit has a post and an image for each audience, every figure sourced.

If you run a school

A free, open ten-module curriculum for replacing corporal punishment, written for small schools with no behavior specialist. Read the training.

Prohibited

Alaska 1989
California 1986
Colorado 2023
Connecticut 1989
Delaware 2003
District of Columbia 1977
Hawaii 1973
Idaho 2023
Illinois 1994
Iowa 1989
Maine 1975
Maryland 1993
Massachusetts 1971
Michigan 1989
Minnesota 1989
Montana 1991
Nebraska 1988
Nevada 1993
New Hampshire 2022
New Jersey 1867
New Mexico 2011
New York 1985
North Dakota 1989
Ohio 2009
Oregon 1989
Pennsylvania 2005
Rhode Island 1977
South Dakota 1990
Utah 1992
Vermont 1985
Virginia 1989
Washington 1993
West Virginia 1994
Wisconsin 1988