Domestic violence affects dependent children, who are more prone than their peers to academic failure as well as behavioral issues.  This seems hardly a surprise.  But it also affects those who share classrooms with them.

The researchers linked domestic violence cases to 4.6 percent of the elementary school students in their sample. These children scored nearly 4 percentile points lower on standardized reading and math scores than their peers whose parents were not involved in domestic violence cases.

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In addition, the children from households linked to domestic violence were 44 percent more likely to have been suspended from school and 28 percent more likely to have bee disciplined for bad behavior. School performance and behavior of these children suffered across genders, races and income levels.

Not only did the children from troubled homes suffer, however: Test scores fell and behavior problems increased for their classmates as well.

Troubled boys caused the bulk of the disruption, and the largest effects were on other boys.

“Troubled kids hurt classmates’ test scores, behavior,” Eureka Alert, 9/9/08

Source: Externalities in the Classroom: How Children Exposed to Domestic Violence Affect Everyone’s Kids