Out-of-School Suspension Rate by State (CRDC 2021-22)
Nationwide, US public schools issued about 5.0 out-of-school suspensions per 100 students, but the rate ranges from 10.3 in South Carolina to 2.5 in Idaho. 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 2,368,776 out-of-school suspensions, or roughly 5.0 per 100 students in a single year.
The rate is highest in South Carolina, at 10.3 per 100 students, and lowest in Idaho, at 2.5, a roughly fourfold spread. 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
Out-of-school suspension removes a student from class for one or more days, and how often schools use it varies widely by state. Across the 51 state systems with enough reporting students, how many out-of-school suspensions are issued per 100 students, and where is the rate highest and lowest?
Methodology
For each state, the figure is the number of out-of-school suspensions issued per 100 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.
This is a count of suspensions per 100 students, not the share of students suspended: because one student can be suspended more than once, the rate can run higher than the percentage of students disciplined. 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 out-of-school suspension rate
Top 10 by out-of-school suspensions per 100 students (CRDC 2021-22)
All 51 state systems, ranked
Out-of-school suspensions per 100 students, highest first. Every state links to its full profile; figures update with each CRDC release.
| # | State | Suspensions per 100 students | Schools reporting | Students |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Carolina | 10.3 | 1,171 | 767,989 |
| 2 | Mississippi | 9.7 | 862 | 430,750 |
| 3 | Nevada | 8.6 | 728 | 472,035 |
| 4 | Louisiana | 8.2 | 1,312 | 669,905 |
| 5 | North Carolina | 8.1 | 2,674 | 1,526,550 |
| 6 | Delaware | 7.6 | 222 | 140,482 |
| 7 | West Virginia | 7.2 | 641 | 238,701 |
| 8 | Georgia | 6.9 | 2,295 | 1,727,494 |
| 9 | Michigan | 6.9 | 3,347 | 1,369,683 |
| 10 | Arkansas | 6.7 | 1,039 | 483,220 |
| 11 | Indiana | 6.7 | 1,843 | 1,027,868 |
| 12 | Ohio | 6.5 | 3,527 | 1,659,136 |
| 13 | Alabama | 6.2 | 1,348 | 731,749 |
| 14 | Florida | 5.8 | 3,937 | 2,807,692 |
| 15 | Missouri | 5.8 | 2,283 | 871,149 |
| 16 | New Mexico | 5.5 | 854 | 301,171 |
| 17 | Colorado | 5.3 | 1,895 | 860,027 |
| 18 | Kansas | 5.3 | 1,343 | 476,775 |
| 19 | Kentucky | 5.3 | 1,380 | 650,594 |
| 20 | Virginia | 5.3 | 1,856 | 1,244,919 |
| 21 | Wisconsin | 5.2 | 2,175 | 809,444 |
| 22 | Nebraska | 5.1 | 989 | 319,848 |
| 23 | Oklahoma | 5.1 | 1,762 | 691,439 |
| 24 | Arizona | 5.0 | 2,027 | 1,085,813 |
| 25 | Pennsylvania | 5.0 | 2,865 | 1,656,605 |
| 26 | New Hampshire | 4.9 | 489 | 162,758 |
| 27 | District of Columbia | 4.8 | 237 | 91,812 |
| 28 | Iowa | 4.8 | 1,313 | 494,757 |
| 29 | New York | 4.8 | 3,184 | 1,661,556 |
| 30 | Tennessee | 4.3 | 1,810 | 982,491 |
| 31 | Wyoming | 4.3 | 347 | 89,418 |
| 32 | Maryland | 4.1 | 1,380 | 884,409 |
| 33 | Texas | 4.0 | 8,786 | 5,407,271 |
| 34 | Alaska | 3.9 | 492 | 126,490 |
| 35 | Connecticut | 3.9 | 993 | 490,273 |
| 36 | Oregon | 3.9 | 1,263 | 533,434 |
| 37 | Montana | 3.8 | 824 | 145,965 |
| 38 | Rhode Island | 3.8 | 306 | 135,488 |
| 39 | New Jersey | 3.7 | 2,472 | 1,344,788 |
| 40 | Hawaii | 3.6 | 294 | 166,603 |
| 41 | Maine | 3.6 | 563 | 166,016 |
| 42 | Illinois | 3.5 | 3,831 | 1,842,010 |
| 43 | Minnesota | 3.5 | 2,237 | 856,612 |
| 44 | South Dakota | 3.4 | 676 | 140,652 |
| 45 | Vermont | 3.4 | 288 | 77,458 |
| 46 | California | 3.1 | 9,905 | 5,746,739 |
| 47 | Massachusetts | 3.1 | 1,817 | 913,684 |
| 48 | North Dakota | 2.9 | 492 | 116,265 |
| 49 | Washington | 2.8 | 2,368 | 1,083,379 |
| 50 | Utah | 2.6 | 1,056 | 669,250 |
| 51 | Idaho | 2.5 | 758 | 310,760 |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), 2021-22. Out-of-school suspension counts are self-reported by schools. U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), 2021-22. Out-of-school suspension counts are self-reported by schools.
What the data shows
Suspension use varies several-fold by state
The gap between the top and bottom of this ranking is large: South Carolina issues out-of-school suspensions at roughly 4.1 times the rate of Idaho. 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
Out-of-school suspension takes a student out of class, and research has linked frequent removal to lost learning time. 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 suspend matter as much as conduct. Read this as a prompt to ask how a state and its schools handle discipline, alongside the attendance and climate data on each profile.
What this rate does and does not cover
This figure counts out-of-school suspensions only. It does not include in-school suspensions, expulsions, 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 behavior, best read together with chronic absenteeism, counseling access, and the other indicators on each school and state profile.
What this analysis cannot tell us
This counts out-of-school suspensions issued per 100 enrolled students, not the share of students suspended, because one student can receive more than one suspension in a year, so the rate can exceed the percentage of students disciplined. It covers only out-of-school suspensions and not in-school suspensions, expulsions, 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, climate, and reporting as much as student conduct. This page reports the overall state rate only and does not break the figure down by student group.
States with the lowest out-of-school suspension rate
The 10 states with the fewest out-of-school suspensions per 100 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). Out-of-School Suspension Rate by State (CRDC 2021-22). https://plainschools.com/research/out-of-school-suspension-rate-by-state/