Expulsion Rate by State (CRDC 2021-22)
Nationwide, US public schools expelled students at a rate of about 244.9 per 100,000 students, but the rate ranges from 1006.6 in Kansas to 6.6 in Rhode Island. PlainSchools ranks all 51 reporting state systems, drawn from the federal Civil Rights Data Collection.
Research period:
Key finding
Across the 47,661,376 public-school students in the federal Civil Rights Data Collection, schools issued about 116,744 expulsions, or roughly 244.9 per 100,000 students in a single year.
The rate is highest in Kansas, at 1006.6 per 100,000 students, and lowest in Rhode Island, at 6.6, a wide multiple. A higher rate reflects discipline policy, school climate, and reporting as much as student behavior, so it is a question to ask, not a verdict.
Research question
Expulsion removes a student from their school entirely, the most severe disciplinary action a school can take, and how often it is used varies widely by state. Across the 51 state systems with enough reporting students, how many expulsions are issued per 100,000 students, and where is the rate highest and lowest?
Methodology
For each state, the figure is the number of expulsions issued per 100,000 enrolled students, drawn from the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) for 2021-22. The rate is weighted by enrollment, and a state needs at least 20,000 reporting students to be ranked so a handful of schools cannot distort it.
Expulsion is rare enough that a per-100-student rate would round almost every state to 0.0, so this page uses a per-100,000 rate instead to keep real state-to-state differences visible. The page reports the overall state rate only. Figures are recomputed live from the database on every request, so nothing here is hand-entered.
See the methodology page for source vintage and full details.
States with the highest expulsion rate
Top 10 by expulsions per 100,000 students (CRDC 2021-22)
All 51 state systems, ranked
Expulsions per 100,000 students, highest first. Every state links to its full profile; figures update with each CRDC release.
| # | State | Expulsions per 100,000 students | Schools reporting | Students |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kansas | 1006.6 | 1,343 | 476,775 |
| 2 | Mississippi | 749.4 | 862 | 430,750 |
| 3 | Tennessee | 718.4 | 1,810 | 982,491 |
| 4 | Louisiana | 707.1 | 1,312 | 669,905 |
| 5 | Georgia | 475.9 | 2,295 | 1,727,494 |
| 6 | Alabama | 463.4 | 1,348 | 731,749 |
| 7 | Indiana | 436.7 | 1,843 | 1,027,868 |
| 8 | South Carolina | 421.2 | 1,171 | 767,989 |
| 9 | Florida | 371.4 | 3,937 | 2,807,692 |
| 10 | Illinois | 356.4 | 3,831 | 1,842,010 |
| 11 | Washington | 350.2 | 2,368 | 1,083,379 |
| 12 | Texas | 350.0 | 8,786 | 5,407,271 |
| 13 | Nevada | 331.3 | 728 | 472,035 |
| 14 | Ohio | 327.8 | 3,527 | 1,659,136 |
| 15 | Wyoming | 323.2 | 347 | 89,418 |
| 16 | West Virginia | 281.1 | 641 | 238,701 |
| 17 | Oklahoma | 270.3 | 1,762 | 691,439 |
| 18 | Nebraska | 257.0 | 989 | 319,848 |
| 19 | Missouri | 247.8 | 2,283 | 871,149 |
| 20 | Arkansas | 244.0 | 1,039 | 483,220 |
| 21 | Kentucky | 239.6 | 1,380 | 650,594 |
| 22 | Delaware | 206.4 | 222 | 140,482 |
| 23 | New Mexico | 200.9 | 854 | 301,171 |
| 24 | Connecticut | 177.7 | 993 | 490,273 |
| 25 | North Carolina | 158.5 | 2,674 | 1,526,550 |
| 26 | Wisconsin | 129.7 | 2,175 | 809,444 |
| 27 | Michigan | 126.7 | 3,347 | 1,369,683 |
| 28 | Montana | 126.7 | 824 | 145,965 |
| 29 | Pennsylvania | 126.6 | 2,865 | 1,656,605 |
| 30 | South Dakota | 123.0 | 676 | 140,652 |
| 31 | Oregon | 109.7 | 1,263 | 533,434 |
| 32 | Colorado | 109.1 | 1,895 | 860,027 |
| 33 | New York | 108.0 | 3,184 | 1,661,556 |
| 34 | District of Columbia | 94.8 | 237 | 91,812 |
| 35 | North Dakota | 90.3 | 492 | 116,265 |
| 36 | California | 85.7 | 9,905 | 5,746,739 |
| 37 | New Jersey | 83.7 | 2,472 | 1,344,788 |
| 38 | Idaho | 63.7 | 758 | 310,760 |
| 39 | Virginia | 62.7 | 1,856 | 1,244,919 |
| 40 | Vermont | 58.1 | 288 | 77,458 |
| 41 | Arizona | 50.6 | 2,027 | 1,085,813 |
| 42 | Iowa | 46.7 | 1,313 | 494,757 |
| 43 | Massachusetts | 45.3 | 1,817 | 913,684 |
| 44 | Maryland | 43.5 | 1,380 | 884,409 |
| 45 | Maine | 39.8 | 563 | 166,016 |
| 46 | Minnesota | 38.3 | 2,237 | 856,612 |
| 47 | Utah | 34.5 | 1,056 | 669,250 |
| 48 | Alaska | 34.0 | 492 | 126,490 |
| 49 | Hawaii | 19.8 | 294 | 166,603 |
| 50 | New Hampshire | 11.7 | 489 | 162,758 |
| 51 | Rhode Island | 6.6 | 306 | 135,488 |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), 2021-22. Expulsion counts are self-reported by schools. U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), 2021-22. Expulsion counts are self-reported by schools.
What the data shows
Expulsion use varies sharply by state
The gap between the top and bottom of this ranking is large: Kansas expels students at roughly 152.5 times the rate of Rhode Island. Because all of these states draw on the same kinds of students, a spread this wide points to differences in discipline policy and school climate rather than differences in children.
A rate is a starting question, not a verdict
Expulsion is the most severe disciplinary action a school can take, removing a student from their school entirely. But a higher state rate does not by itself mean worse schools or worse behavior: schools that report carefully can look higher than schools that under-report, and policy choices about when to expel matter as much as conduct. Some districts route serious cases through alternative placements rather than a formal expulsion, which this figure cannot see. Read this as a prompt to ask how a state and its schools handle discipline, alongside the attendance and staffing data on each profile.
What this rate does and does not cover
This figure counts expulsions only. It does not include in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, restraint, or referrals to law enforcement, and it does not separate the figure by student group. It is one measure of how a state's schools respond to the most serious behavior, best read together with out-of-school suspension rates, chronic absenteeism, and the other indicators on each school and state profile.
What this analysis cannot tell us
This counts expulsions issued per 100,000 enrolled students, a per-capita rate chosen because expulsions are rare enough that a per-100 figure would round nearly every state to 0.0. It covers only expulsions and not in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, restraint, or law-enforcement referrals, so it is one slice of school discipline rather than a full picture. The counts are self-reported by schools to the Civil Rights Data Collection for 2021-22, the year many schools were still returning from pandemic disruption, and reporting practices differ. A higher rate is not by itself evidence of worse behavior or worse schools: it reflects discipline policy, school climate, and reporting as much as student conduct, and some districts route expulsion decisions through alternative placements that this figure cannot see. This page reports the overall state rate only and does not break the figure down by student group.
States with the lowest expulsion rate
The 10 states with the fewest expulsions per 100,000 students (CRDC 2021-22)
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), 2021-22: https://ocrdata.ed.gov/
Cite this analysis
PlainSchools. (2026). Expulsion Rate by State (CRDC 2021-22). https://plainschools.com/research/expulsion-rate-by-state/