How to read school discipline data

The federal Civil Rights Data Collection counts every public school's suspensions and expulsions. In 2021-22, the schools still open in 2024-25 reported 2,343,672 out-of-school suspensions, 5.0 per 100 students, 2,114,331 in-school suspensions and 115,592 expulsions. Middle schools suspended most; 23.4% of schools reported no out-of-school suspensions at all.

Written from CRDC 2021-22 · published · reviewed · editorial process

What the CRDC counts

The Office for Civil Rights asks every public school, every two years, how many times it suspended students in school and out of school, how many it expelled, referred to law enforcement or had arrested, and how often it restrained or secluded students, each by race, sex, disability and English-learner status. Schools report the counts themselves; 2021-22 is the latest collection loaded here.

The national numbers

Out-of-school suspensions2,343,6725.0 per 100 students
In-school suspensions2,114,3314.5 per 100 students
Expulsions115,592247 per 100,000 students
LevelSchoolsOut-of-school per 100In-school per 100
Elementary50,1262.31.6
Middle15,3559.08.9
High20,5516.76.3
Other or combined3,7403.42.1

Source: Civil Rights Data Collection 2021-22: discipline counts and enrollment by school; 89,772 schools open in 2024-25 that reported. Rates are counts of actions per 100 students, not the share of students disciplined.

Reading a school's counts

  1. Divide by the school's enrollment: 40 suspensions in a school of 2,000 is a low rate; in a school of 200 it is high.
  2. Remember one student can be suspended several times; the count is of actions, not students.
  3. Compare with schools of the same level: middle and high schools suspend far more than elementary schools.
  4. Read the year: these are 2021-22 counts, the first year back in classrooms for many schools after pandemic closures. Ask the school for its current policy and figures.

Discipline by student group

The CRDC's purpose is to show whether some groups of students are disciplined more than others, and its reports have long shown differences by race, disability and sex. PlainSchools shows each school's totals; the group-by-group counts for any school are on the Office for Civil Rights' site, civilrightsdata.ed.gov.

Questions

  1. What is the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)?
    A survey of every U.S. public school by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, run every two years. It counts discipline, restraint and seclusion, course access, staff and more, by student group, so that unequal treatment can be seen.
  2. What is an out-of-school suspension?
    Removing a student from school for at least half a day, as a disciplinary action. An in-school suspension keeps the student in the building but out of the regular classroom. An expulsion removes the student from the school for the rest of the year or longer.
  3. Why are suspension rates higher for some student groups?
    The CRDC reports discipline by race, sex, disability and English-learner status, and has long shown some groups suspended more often than others. Differences reflect school policies and how rules are applied as well as behavior; the Office for Civil Rights publishes the group-by-group figures at ocrdata.ed.gov.
  4. What is a referral to law enforcement in school discipline data?
    A report of a student to a police agency or court for an incident at school, whether or not it leads to an arrest. The CRDC counts referrals and school-related arrests separately from suspensions and expulsions.

Related

Sources

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection Discipline and enrollment by school · 2021-22

Compiled from official source data by .