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Background: Public schools are among the first civic institution with which many individuals have prolonged, meaningful social interaction. Lessons about the authority, power, and fairness of civic institutions, conveyed through disciplinary and social control practices, may be part of the "hidden curriculum," that teaches students about racially inequitable unspoken norms, beliefs, and values held by society. We summarize three pathways by which the discipline gap in schools may contribute to civic disempowerment. First, and most directly, schools are key providers of civic education. They provide students with knowledge and skills on topics like politics, history, government, and current events (1,2). Students who are excessively removed from the classroom because of exclusionary discipline are more likely to miss out on this education. Second, schools shape students' attitudes about civic engagement. Schools influence students' concern for the common good, their understanding of whether their school, as a representative of a civic institution, is fair and just, and their belief in whether it is possible to change systems for the better (3). The discipline gap been found to damage its victims' sense of fairness in school and to lead to disaffection and alienation (4-6). Third, education is associated with the financial security and job characteristics that make civic engagement more possible (7,8). The discipline gap has been strongly linked to risk of drop out and therefore to diminished economic well-being (7,9). Moreover, exclusionary discipline has been tied to increased risk of incarceration, which can lead to outright disenfranchisement (10). Purpose: Using Critical Race Theory, Social Cognitive Theory, and Social Control Theory, we propose that disparities in civic engagement may be among the long-term consequences of racially disproportionate discipline and social control in schools. We tested this hypothesis using voting behavior. This study builds on previous work in this area (11) first by strengthening the theoretical basis for a connection between exclusionary disciplinary experience and social control in school and civic engagement in adulthood and second by extending the empirical test of those theoretical bases. We predict that disproportionate discipline and control in schools are among the insults experienced by Black students that inform their social learning about the fairness of civic institutions and that therefore erode their sense of political efficacy thereby making them less inclined to vote. Our study tested three hypotheses: first, disciplined students will be less likely to vote as adults, with the effect size increasing with the number of suspensions received. Second, the number of social control measures in school will be continuously and negatively associated with voting as an adult. Third, the effects of both suspension and social control on voting behavior will be modified by race, with Black, non-Hispanic students experiencing greater reductions in voting than non-Black students. Methods: With national data from approximately 15,369 students who participated in the Education Longitudinal Study between 2002 and 2012, this retrospective cohort study examined the relationships between discipline (i.e., how often a 10th grade student was suspended), social control (i.e., the number of social control measures in place in their school), and voting behavior into adulthood and how those relationships varied by race after considering several individual-, household-, and school-level variables, including student perceptions of school climate. Following descriptive and bivariate analyses, we used multilevel logistic regression with household- and school-level fixed effects to test our hypotheses. Our first model looked at only main effects. In the second model we added the interaction between Black non-Hispanic race and discipline history. In the third model we included a second interaction term between Black non-Hispanic race and social control. Findings: As hypothesized, we found that the relationship between exclusionary discipline and voting behavior was negative and demonstrated a dose-response pattern. In model one, students who were suspended one or two times in their sophomore year had approximately 16.5% lower odds of being a regular voter relative to those who were never disciplined (p=0.003). Students suspended three or more times had 25.4% lower odds (p<0.001). The interaction of race and suspension history in Model Two was significant for students who had been suspended three or more times (p=0.021), confirming part of our interaction hypothesis. Taking the main and interaction effects into account, Black non-Hispanic students suspended one or two times had an odds of voting regularly that was 26.2% lower than non-Black students who had never been suspended (OR=0.738, p=0.059). Black students suspended three or more times had an odds of voting regularly that were 33.5% lower than non-Black students who had never been suspended (p=0.021). The relationship between number of social control measures and voting behavior was positive and significant. Every additional social control measure was associated with a 1.3% increase in the odds of regular voting (p=0.002); the interaction by race was not significant. This contradicted our hypotheses. Conclusion: Our discipline-related findings suggest that schools are testing grounds where students develop a lived experience of fairness and justice, which they may then apply to other civic activities. Future studies should use the paths enumerated above and richer, mixed methods data to examine the mechanisms at play. This understanding will be necessary to advise school administrators on how and why to address the discipline gap (e.g., through disciplinary policy reform and implementation of restorative alternatives). This study also encourages education researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and advocates to think about the long-term effects of the "hidden curriculum" from a racial equity perspective. At a moment in our history when American Democracy seems gravely at risk, we must think about how our institutions communicate racialized messages of privilege, power, and precarity.