New state data prove a steep drib in suspensions and expulsions of California students, continuing a contempo downwardly trend. Altogether, 20 percentage fewer students were expelled and 15 per centum fewer students were suspended in 2013-xiv than in the previous twelvemonth.

Since 2011-12, suspensions accept dropped by 25 percent and expulsions by 30 percent.

A steep drop in suspensions for "willful defiance" accounted for the bulk of the decrease in suspensions. This category has come under fire because information technology has been used to subject field a broad range of behaviors, from forgetting homework to disrespecting teachers, and has been applied disproportionately to African-American students. Well-nigh 76,000 fewer suspensions for willful defiance or disruption of schoolhouse activities were recorded in 2013-14, a drop of about 29 pct from the previous year. The number of suspensions includes multiple suspensions of the same students.

The percentage of students expelled for willful defiance also dropped, from 6 pct in 2012-13 to 4 percent in 2013-fourteen. Beginning in January 2015, students can no longer be expelled for willful disobedience, and One thousand-iii students cannot be suspended for that reason.

"These numbers show that the piece of work of the department, districts, teachers, parents, and students around the state is paying off past keeping more students in school and learning," said Tom Torlakson, superintendent of public teaching, in a press release. "You can accept the best facilities, the best teachers, and the best curriculum in the world, but none of that matters if students are non in schoolhouse. That'due south why we take put then much endeavour into increasing schoolhouse attendance and reducing expulsions and suspensions and will continue to do so."

"Information technology's very encouraging to see significant progress two years in a row," said Laura Faer, education rights manager for Public Counsel. "Only we want to be cautious about our enthusiasm. We want to make sure the implementation is long-lasting and that we are reaching the children with social and emotional learning issues."

The drop in the numbers of students suspended and expelled was substantial for all ethnicities, but African-American students remain disproportionately disciplined. They make up 6.two percent of student enrollment simply accounted for sixteen.four percent of suspensions in 2013-14, a slightly college percentage than the yr earlier. Former Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, who sponsored the legislation that concise the apply of willful defiance, said he was encouraged by the results but that the asymmetric suspensions of African-American students "remind us that significant piece of work must exist done."

Laura Faer, education rights director for Public Counsel, a public interest police firm based in Los Angeles, said information technology was "very encouraging to run across significant progress ii years in a row." Her firm has worked with legislators and educators to encourage more positive disciplinary practices in schools.

"But we want to be cautious about our enthusiasm," Faer said. "Nosotros want the numbers to reflect real school climate and culture changes that benefit students and teachers. We want to make sure the implementation is long-lasting and that we are reaching the children with social and emotional learning problems."

Faer says she is "charily optimistic" that the drop in suspensions and expulsions "are reflecting real changes." Public Counsel has reviewed 64 Local Control and Accountability Plans, which draw how districts plan to spend their funds and must include ways they are going to better school climate. In that review, 75 percent of the districts planned to implement more positive disciplinary practices. And xv of the districts are using restorative justice approaches to discipline, which require students to accept responsibility for their behavior and make apology to those they accept harmed. For example, if a student disrupts a class, he could repent to the course and stay later on schoolhouse to help the teacher fix for the next twenty-four hour period.

New information released past Oakland Unified, which has been implementing restorative justice practices since 2010 in some of its schools, bear witness comeback in reading and graduation rates. The percentage of 9th-graders reading at course level more than doubled at restorative justice high schools, from 14 percentage in 2010 to 33 percent in 2013. That compares to an increase of eleven percent in other schools in the district. During that same period, dropout rates declined by 56 pct in Oakland Unified high schools with restorative justice compared to 17 per centum in other high schools.

"We must notice ways to ensure students are in school every day, engaged in learning and experience valued and supported past adults," said Oakland Unified superintendent Antwan Wilson in a press release. "Excessively castigating strategies, peculiarly for infractions such as 'disobedience,' have proved counterproductive and driven children away from school. Our restorative approach is aimed at addressing the underlying problems backside pupil misconduct and creating positive practices to strengthen culture and improve student behavior."

Other districts, including Los Angeles Unified, San Francisco Unified and Pasadena Unified, take eliminated willful defiance every bit a reason to suspend or expel any pupil.

Azusa Unified in Los Angeles Canton also no longer suspends or expels students for that reason, according to Garry Creel, managing director of child welfare and attendance for the district.

"Suspensions don't change beliefs," Creel said. "There are better means to change behavior rather than excluding a student from schoolhouse."

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