Breaking down the use of exclusionary discipline in North Carolina public schools during the 2016-17 school year
In March 2018, the North Carolina State Board of Education issued a report to the General Assembly on the use of suspension, expulsion, alternative learning program placements, disciplinary reassignments, and corporal punishment during the 2016-17 school year. The annual report, required by law and prepared by the Department of Public Instruction, contains selected discipline data from the state’s 115 school districts and 150+ charter schools.
Although not comprehensive, the data contained in the annual report is an important tool for tracking trends in school discipline in North Carolina. This white paper looks at the most recent report, highlighting some of the key takeaways from the 2016-17 data and making recommendations to improve school discipline in the state.
The data analysis from the Youth Justice Project found that:
- Although out-of-school suspension is down, students are still too often removed from class for disciplinary reasons.
- Tens of thousands of young children were suspended last school year.
- Black students were more likely to be suspended than white students.
- There is not enough information about the impact of School Resource Officers.
While some individual schools and districts are taking steps to address the issues outlined in the report, the Youth Justice Project calls for immediate and bold action at the state level. The report outlines several policy recommendations that include:
- banning out-of-school suspensions for early grades,
- mandating data collection and reporting for school-based interactions with police, and;
- prioritizing racially equitable discipline policies.
Interactive report below: