Lengthy suspensions rose during the first half of last school year, new data show

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Long-term suspensions rose during the first half of last school year, fueling a slight rise in students removed from their classrooms, according to long-delayed data released by the Education Department.

From July through December 2023, New York City’s public schools issued about 2,233 superintendent suspensions, longer punishments that are served at outside suspension sites and last more than five days — a 5.5% increase compared with the same period in 2022. Those suspensions are typically capped at 20 days , but in some cases stretch for months.

Less severe principal suspensions — which last up to five days and are served in school — declined 0.8% to about 8,440. The overall number of suspensions of all types increased just 0.6% year-over-year. Public school enrollment in grades K-12 grew about 1% over that period.

The overall numbers continue a recent trend of rising suspensions in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, when exclusionary discipline all but disappeared. Compared to the first half of 2019 , the most recent period before the pandemic hit, suspensions were up nearly 7%, even as K-12 enrollment in the city’s public schools has declined more than 10% over the same period . (The figures do not include charter schools.)

“What we are seeing is that there is a bit of a backslide here,” said Rohini Singh, director of the school justice project at Advocates for Children, which helps low-income families navigate school discipline procedures and has pushed to reduce suspensions. “What we’re hoping is that the administration will focus more on prevention … really understanding the reasons behind behavior and addressing that.”

The latest statistics also show a nearly 11% year-over-year rise in the number of students experiencing emotional or psychiatric distress who were transported from their school to a hospital — an increase of 32 incidents. Still, the number of emergency transports of students in emotional distress during the first half of the school year was about 30% lower compared with the first half of 2019.

Before the pandemic, suspensions were on a steep downward trajectory, as former Mayor Bill de Blasio overhauled the city’s discipline code to discourage schools from excluding students from their classrooms as a punishment. Though suspensions have shot back up as the pandemic has receded and concerns about student behavior and mental health have multiplied, they remain much less common than they were a decade ago. That shift has proved controversial among some educators who contend it has led to more chaotic classrooms.

Mayor Eric Adams has made cracking down on crime and disorder a centerpiece of his administration, though he has not attempted to overhaul the school discipline code. And he has largely continued funding restorative justice programs , which offer alternative methods of conflict resolution and were increasingly dependent on expiring federal aid .

For his part, schools Chancellor David Banks has previously said he does not favor a return to “zero tolerance” approaches to school discipline. However, the Education Department has signaled that principals should exercise their own judgment, multiple school leaders said, a rhetorical shift away from the previous administration’s focus on driving down suspension rates as much as possible.

“The message now is [suspensions are] a tool that you have,” said one high school principal who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, referring to a training school leaders attended in March. They added that the change in rhetoric is welcome. “Sometimes you need to send a strong message to your community” that specific behaviors won’t be tolerated, the principal said, adding that their campus also uses restorative approaches.

An Education Departmentment spokesperson emphasized that students must follow school discipline policies and noted the city is continuing to fund restorative justice programs, but did not comment on the uptick in suspensions.

Under city law, the suspension data for the first half of the school year was required to be released by the end of March and posted on the Education Department’s website. In recent years, education officials have routinely ignored the legal deadline for publishing the suspension data and have not provided any explanation for the delays.

The Education Department published the most recent suspension report just before a formal public records request for it was due. And the suspension statistics for the 2022-23 school year were revealed only after Chalkbeat prepared to publish a story about the missing data.

Full suspension data for the 2023-24 school year, including demographic breakdowns, are supposed to be published by the end of October.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org .