Information Services - Statistical Reports
Student Exclusions 1999 - 2000
Exclusions by Type of Offense
Schools reported one or more offenses for each student exclusion. Figure 3 illustrates the number of exclusions that occurred for each of the offenses specified in state law as actions for which school principals are authorized to exclude students and for "other" offenses. Exclusions resulting from more than one offense are displayed as either a "weapon combination" or a "non-weapon combination."
As shown in Table 5, over one-fifth of exclusions were for possession of an illegal substance, a slight increase from the previous year. Approximately 11 percent of exclusions were for assaults on school staff, a slight decrease from the previous year, and seven percent of exclusions were for assaults on students, a decrease from the two previous years. Seven percent of student exclusions were for a felony committed outside of school, unchanged from the previous year. Exclusions for an offense reported as "other" accounted for 23 percent of the student exclusions, an increase of seven percentage points from the previous year.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Exclusions due to weapons on school premises have fluctuated over the past three years. In the school year 1999-00, 24 percent of student exclusions involved weapons on school premises, a decrease of five percentage points from the previous year. Of the 350 exclusions that involved a weapon, 75 percent involved a knife, an increase of seven percentage points from the prior year. Three percent involved a gun, a decrease of five percentage points from the previous year, and two percent involved an explosive or incendiary device, virtually unchanged from the previous year. Those offenses reported in the "other" type of weapon category accounted for 17 percent of student exclusions involving a weapon, a decrease from the previous year by three percentage points. The "other" types of weapons categories most often reported were razor blades or box cutters, scissors, various tools, and bats and clubs.
Figure 4 compares the distribution of exclusions for each type of offense for racial/ethnic minority students and for white students. Minority students accounted for 67 to 79 percent of exclusions for weapons violations and 73 to 78 percent for assaults on staff and/or students, while white students accounted for 70 percent of exclusions for possession of illegal substances.
Exclusions by Length of Time
Schools were asked to report the date the student was excluded and either the date the student returned to school or was eligible to return to school, if the exclusion was not permanent. In 1999, the Department began collecting data specifically on the number of school days a student missed due to exclusion from school. Previous reports included analyses of exclusions by calendar days, which are not comparable to the number of school days.
In 1999-00, 13 percent of student exclusions occurred for 11 to 20 school days, slightly more than one-third (38 percent) were for 21 to 40 days and 27 percent were for 41 to 179 days as shown in Table 6. Eleven percent of student exclusions occurred for one school year (180 school days). Approximately 10 percent were permanent exclusions, commonly referred to as expulsions. Although the overall number of student exclusions had increased by six percent from the previous year, the number of students permanently excluded in 1999-00 (145 students) decreased by four percent from the 180 students reported permanently excluded in 1998-99 (Table 6).
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Table 7 shows that 17 percent of the white students who were excluded from school were removed permanently, compared to eight percent of Asian-American students, five percent of Hispanic students and eight percent of African-American students. No American Indian students were excluded permanently. African-American and Hispanic students had their highest percentage of students excluded for 21 to 40 school days; American Indian, Asian, and white students had their highest percentage of students excluded for 41 to 179 days.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||