Gwinnett County public school administrators this month released an update on its disciplinary actions against students.
Here are five takeaways from the report.
1. The school district is suspending more students from school. There's been a slight uptick in the percentage of out-of-school suspensions, from 23.8 per 1,000 students at this point during the 2015-16 school to 24 suspensions per 1,000 students thus far this school year.
2. In-school suspensions are also up. Gwinnett has handed out 8,669 in-school suspensions so far this school year. There were 8,416 such suspensions at this point last school year. The percentage of suspensions is slightly higher this year. Some experts have pushed schools to administer more in-school suspensions as opposed to sending students home from school where they may not conduct any learning while being punished.
3. Fewer kindergarten students are being suspended from school. There have been 100 suspensions of kindergarten students so far this school year, the report said. At this point last school year, there were 111 such suspensions. Gwinnett officials last year noted the number of kindergarten students being suspended and discussed ways to decrease the total.
4. Physical abuse the most frequent disciplinary problem. There have been 89 serious instances so far this school year where a student is accused of physically harming someone else inside a school. The second most frequent infraction is possession of drugs, alcohol or tobacco, with 81 instances, the report showed.
5. Ninth-graders are being suspended less frequently. The number of ninth-graders in Gwinnett suspended from school so far this year is down, from 1,025 at this point last year to 866 thus far this school year. High school freshmen more frequently get in disciplinary trouble than other grade levels, research shows.
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