Objective: This study examined associations between teachers’ exclusionary discipline practices (EDP) and autistic students’ behavioral and emotional academic engagement (AE), and whether student gender was associated with engagement outcomes.

Methods: Participants were 75 K–2 teachers and their autistic students (60 male, 14 female). Teachers completed surveys assessing their use of exclusionary discipline and student's academic engagement. T-tests examined gender differences in EDP, and regressions tested whether EDP predicted engagement controlling for gender.

Results: Teacher-reported EDP showed substantial variability (SD=5.41; range=9–34). Autistic girls received significantly higher EDP scores (M=22.93,SD=5.03) than autistic boys (M = 18.88, SD = 5.29), t(72) = 2.60, p = .011, d = 0.77. However, EDP was not significantly associated with behavioral (r = −.06, p > .05) or emotional engagement (r=−.06, p>.05). Linear regression analyses indicated that neither EDP nor student gender predicted engagement (all ps>.05).

Conclusion: Autistic girls were subjected to higher levels of exclusionary discipline than autistic boys. Although prior analyses demonstrated EDP significantly associated with overall academic engagement, no associations were observed when behavioral and emotional engagement were examined separately. These findings suggest that disciplinary disparities may relate to generalized disengagement rather than domain-specific processes, highlighting the need for longitudinal research to clarify the developmental sequencing of disciplinary impacts.