Attorney General report raises concerns over Gallup-McKinley discipline practices

Native American students at Gallup-McKinley County Schools lost roughly 8 to 10 times as many school days to out-of-school suspension as White peers, according to a July 2026 New Mexico Department of Justice report. Hispanic students lost 3 to 4 times as many suspension days as White students in the same analysis, a gap that puts classroom removal and discipline fairness at the center of concern for families in Gallup, Zuni Pueblo and across McKinley County.

The report, titled Forced Out: How Exclusionary and Disparate Disciplinary Practices at Gallup-McKinley County Schools Rob Students of Instructional Time, goes beyond a routine policy review. Its findings point to a discipline system that is not landing evenly across student groups, with the heaviest burden falling on Native and Hispanic students in a district that serves a large Native student population and a wide geographic area.

That matters in practical terms for parents and students because every suspension takes time away from instruction, routines and adult support at school. When students are sent out of class repeatedly, they can fall behind academically, lose momentum on attendance and become less connected to school life. For families who already have to manage long distances, transportation limits and the demands of a rural district, each disciplinary removal can be harder to absorb.

Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s office had already opened an investigation into discipline at Gallup-McKinley County Schools by July 6. The report’s focus on exclusionary practices made discipline itself a public accountability issue, not just an internal school matter, and raised questions about whether students are being treated consistently when rules are enforced.

The state findings also followed an earlier warning from a Navajo Nation commission, which issued a March 2026 report on disparate discipline for Native students at Gallup schools and urged the district to develop restorative justice responses. That sequence shows the discipline gap had already drawn outside scrutiny before the attorney general’s office stepped in, and it leaves district leaders under pressure to explain how they will respond before students are back in class.

For parents, the key issue now is whether Gallup-McKinley County Schools will reduce reliance on out-of-school suspension and put clearer, more equitable discipline practices in place this school year. The report suggests the district’s current approach has removed far more instructional time from Native and Hispanic students than from White students, with consequences that reach well beyond a single referral or one school day.