After more than two years of revamping its discipline policies, Brevard Public Schools has seen its discipline rate drop by nearly 2,000 points during the same time last year, according to data presented by Student Services at Tuesday’s work session.
Director Mark Rendell compared it to police officers writing tickets on busy roads and said he was happy to see that number go down.
“When you fix fraud, you have to write a lot of tickets,” he said. “Last year, we were writing a lot of tickets…and at this point this year, the number of referrals is down by almost 2,000. It’s amazing.”
The district’s discipline policies and procedures have been refined over the past several years. Specifically, those surrounding teachers, administrators and bus drivers having to file reports, or “referrals,” as district staff are called, after an incident occurs. This change was made following an audit in March 2023 to our discipline processes in the hopes of streamlining processes and allowing things to run more smoothly.
At this point, in addition to submitting referrals within a set time period, the district’s procedures include monthly training for administrators, transportation problem-solving meetings, Brevard Federation of Teachers meetings, and more.
Here’s what the data showed:
How many students were disciplined?
Overall, the number of referrals decreased in the first semester of the 2024-2025 school year compared to the same period in the previous school year, as did the number of students receiving referrals, according to district data. .
During the first semester of the school year, 43,696 referrals were recorded. This is 1,948 fewer referrals than the district saw during the same period in the 2023-2024 school year, when there were 45,644 referrals in the first semester.
This year’s first semester referrals were divided into 14,196 students, compared to 15,273 students in the first semester of the 2023-2024 school year.
How much time do you spend in a suspension or alternative learning center?
The number of out-of-school suspensions decreased from the first semester of the 2023-2024 school year compared to the first semester of this year, but the number of out-of-school suspensions increased.
According to district data, there were 4,803 in-school suspensions during the first semester last year, compared to 3,506 this year.
As for out-of-school suspensions, there were 15,358 suspensions in the first semester of last year, while there were 15,723 suspensions in the first semester of this year.
Alternative Learning Center Placement – Students at BPS learning facilities facing expulsion can choose to attend instead of choosing homeschooling or private school – which fell between this year and last year. There were 325 placements in ALCS in the first semester of the 2023-2024 academic year, and this year there were 257.
Are groups disproportionately affected?
Although the total number of placements in alternative learning centers decreased this year for all races compared to last year, Black students were still disproportionately represented. Of the 257 students placed in these centers during the first semester of the school year, 117 were Black, 81 were White, 30 were Hispanic, 28 were multiracial, and 1 was American Indian/Alaskan. It was.
In other words, approximately 46% of those placed in BPS’s alternative learning centers were Black. This is an increase from last year’s first semester, when Black students made up about 42% of students placed in alternative learning centers.
Of all Brevard Public Schools’ more than 74,300 students, 11,398, or about 15%, are Black.
Some groups also saw higher rates of risk compared to the first semester last year. Risk ratio refers to the measure the state uses to determine whether a district is “at risk” based on the number of suspensions given to a particular demographic. Ideally, each demographic should be 1.0, but a ratio of 2.5 would put the district in “alert status” and a ratio of 3.0 would be when action needs to be taken to resolve the situation.
In the first semester of the 2024-2025 school year, risk ratios for Alaska Native/American Indian, Black, English Learner, and non-gifted special education students all increased, as did Asian, free or reduced lunch, Hispanic, and The rate of reduction has increased. Multiracial students failed. The proportion of white students (0.54) remained the same between both years.
Alaska Native/American Indian and Black students were tied for the highest risk ratio at 0.09 from the first semester of 2023-2024 to the first semester of this year, placing their overall risk ratios at 1.19 and 2.66. did. Students receiving free or reduced lunch had the greatest reduction in risk ratio, from 2.75 to 2.53.
What do administrators, teachers, and bus drivers say?
Teachers, administrators and bus drivers were asked how they felt about the current discipline process.
Of the 118 managers, the majority have clearly defined policies and procedures, adequate monthly training updates, and understand the rules for corrective strategies written in the BPS Code of Conduct. said.
Bus drivers (102 of whom were surveyed) said they overwhelmingly knew what to do if there was a disciplinary issue on their bus, and agreed or agreed that referrals were handled more quickly than in the past. I strongly agreed.
Teachers were more divided. Of the 438 teachers surveyed, 50% said their discipline policies were clearly defined, and 59.4% said they understood the remedial strategies set out in their disciplinary rules and codes of conduct. When asked whether administrators follow up with them to discuss referrals and remediation strategies, 50.2% said some time, 21.7% said everything, and 28.1% said no one. He also said he would not follow them.
Finch Walker is an education reporter in Florida today. Contact Walker at fwalker@floridatoday.com. X: @_finchwalker.
