Corporal punishment remains legal in public schools across 15 states despite broad consensus among psychologists that the practice can be harmful to children. The United States lacks federal legislation banning the discipline method, leaving decisions to individual states and local districts. Thirty states plus Washington, D.C., have enacted explicit bans on corporal punishment in public schools, while remaining states either have no specific laws addressing the practice or contain legislation interpreted as prohibitions.
Federal data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection documented almost 32,000 reported instances of corporal punishment in K-12 schools during the 2021-’22 school year, translating to approximately one reported incident per 2,000 students. The vast majority of these cases occurred in eight states, primarily located in the South. Arkansas and Mississippi report among the highest rates of corporal punishment use nationally.
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry defines corporal punishment as actions intended to cause pain or discomfort in response to student behavior, with paddling being the most common school-based method. While the practice was more widespread historically—including its use to prevent children from speaking languages other than English and to enforce assimilation in federal Indian boarding schools—it continues in areas where cultural and faith-based beliefs support physical discipline as an acceptable childrearing approach.
Advocates working to end the practice note that shifting attitudes exist even in communities where corporal punishment has deep cultural roots. Policy experts indicate that opposition to physical discipline methods is growing, particularly as parents and educators explore alternative accountability approaches that maintain student responsibility while promoting emotional safety and behavioral improvement.
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