One smack for disobeying. Two smacks for shoving another student. The idea of a school official hitting a child with a wooden paddle might sound archaic, like a throwback to the days of the one-room schoolhouse. But corporal punishment, which includes spanking, paddling, and hitting children to punish misbehavior, is legal in public schools in 19 states. It is also legal in private schools in every state except New Jersey and Iowa. And while not all schools in those states use physical force to discipline students, many of them do. More than 92,000 students were on the receiving end of corporal punishment during the 2015-16 school year (the most recent year for which national data is available), for infractions ranging from being late to class to cheating on an assignment. Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Arkansas reported the most instances; in each of those states, more than 10,000 students received a physical punishment. Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee each reported thousands of K-12 students were physically disciplined. Elementary school students tend to receive corporal punishment more often than students in middle or high school.