A report, released Friday by the Department of Education's civil rights arm, revealed that in U.S. public schools, black students -- even as young as preschoolers -- are more likely to get suspended than any other race.

According to the report, black children make up about 18 percent of all preschoolers in the nation, while almost half of those students have been suspended more than once. Of the nation's districts with preschools, six percent have reported suspending at least one child.

The data also revealed that black students of all ages experience suspension and expulsions at a rate that's three times higher than that of white students. Black males represent more than two-thirds of the suspensions, however black females are statistically suspended at higher rates than other girls and most boys.

The report doesn't reveal or explain neither why the disparity exists nor the reasons for the suspensions, according to Al Jazeera America.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a news release that the U.S. is still far from achieving a goal that aims at providing all students the same opportunities.

"It is clear that the United States has a great distance to go to meet our goal of providing opportunities for every student to succeed," she said.

Last month, President Barack Obama launched "My Brother's Keeper," an initiative to reform discipline in schools but to primarily provide guidance for the nation's colored youth who have struggled to stay in school and earn degrees for future careers.

Attorney General Eric Holder said that the damning report did a good job of documenting the disparities in the nation's school system, which has diverted a lot potential youth.

"This critical report shows that racial disparities in school discipline policies are not only well documented among older students, but actually begin during preschool," Holder said. "Every data point represents a life impacted and a future potentially diverted or derailed."

Daniel Losen, Center for Civil Rights Remedies Director for the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the finding that nearly 5,000 preschoolers have been suspended once while 2,500 were suspended on multiple occasions is disturbing because it wasn't as if they posed a danger to the school.

"Almost none of these kids are kids that wouldn't be better off with some support from educators," Losen said. "Just kicking them out of school is denying them access to educational opportunity at such a young age. Then, as they come in for kindgergarten, they are just that much less prepared."