Across the state, schools are 10 times more likely to suspend students for bad behavior as they are to expel them. We're just announcing that we're giving up on that student. State rates for expulsions, alternative placements and paddling averaged fewer than 1 per 100 students. The state average for suspensions for school violations, however, was more than 10 per 100 students. The law and school violations were reported in rates per 100 students for expulsions without education services, expulsions with education services, suspensions, alternative placements and corporal punishment.
Higher rates mean more incidents.
Suspensions for school violations was the only category in which most Northern Kentucky schools exceeded state averages. More than half of the region's 18 districts had a higher suspension rate than the state average. Covington, which had the highest suspension rate in Northern Kentucky for school violations, had 22.4 suspensions per 100 students, followed by Erlanger-Elsmere Independent Schools with 20.3 and Newport Independent Schools with 20.2. Covington officials say the district is working to lower the number of suspensions through alternative programs and by working with family resource centers, social service agencies and juvenile courts. Tuesday's report also compared discipline rates for white and black students.