State Releases New Numbers on Suspensions and Expulsions at Drake High

The California Department of Education recently released numbers showing school administrators suspended one out of 20 students and expelled one 1,000 students statewide during the 2011-12 school year.

Across the Tamalpais Union High School District, 211 suspensions were handed out to 177 students in 2011-2012. Sixteen students were expelled from the district's five schools during that period, 10 of which were for drug-related offenses. White students, who make up 76 percent of all students in the dstrict, accounted for 52 percent of school suspensions.

At Drake High, drug-related offenses accounted for the bulk of the suspensions handed out, with 30 of the 35 offenses leading to suspensions and two offenses leading to expulsions all related to the "possession, use, sale, or furnishing of a controlled substance."

Statewide data revealed that black students and Hispanic students are more likely to be suspended than white or Asian students. At Drake, however, nearly half of the 35 suspensions handed out in 2011-2012 were issued to white students, not surprising since 83 percent of the school's students are white. 

Elsewhere in the Tam District – at Tam High, for instance – black students accounted for around one-third of the total suspensions despite representing less than 6 percent of the student body at Tam.

A similar disparity exists across California, according to the CDE:

African-American students are 6.5 percent of total enrollment, but make up 19 percent of suspensions. White students are 26 percent of total enrollment, but represent 20 percent of suspensions. Hispanic students are 52 percent of total enrollment, and 54 percent of suspensions.

The California Department of Education is working on several initiatives to address these differences in rates by identifying positive alternatives to suspension and expulsion, as well as developing effective strategies to improve attendance as part of an overarching initiative to keep students in school. The Department has partnered with several organizations to work on these initiatives, including The California Endowment, the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care, the Region IX Equity Assistance Center at WestEd, and Attendance Works.

You can find a brief explanation of the methodology behind the state's suspension and expulsion data here. In the graphic above, note that the number of offenses is larger than the number of suspensions and expulsions, as several students were suspended multiple times.

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