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K-12 Student Infractions and Discipline

Highlights

Record Level: student x incident x year
Record Count: 111,000 records/year
Years Covered: 2011-present
Population Coverage: public school students in Michigan

The State of Michigan provides discipline data in a single dataset that includes all reported disciplinary incidents in Michigan schools from 2011 to present. Suspensions are required to be reported in all years for students with IEPs, and expulsions are required to be reported in all years for all students.

There is a large increase in reporting starting in the 2017-2018 school year, when reporting suspensions for all students became mandatory for all Michigan schools. However, this policy ended after the 2017-2018 school year, so beginning in 2018-2019 schools were no longer required (but were still encouraged) to report suspensions for students without an IEP. In all years, schools were able to voluntarily report suspensions for students without an IEP. A suspension is an event resulting in a student’s removal from their usual education setting for one half of the school day or longer.

The raw data included identifiers such as student Id (RIC), school year, school and district code; incident date, and type of incident; type and length of disciplinary action; and any administrative follow up to address the incident (e.g. referred to mental health agency). These data are intended to be unique at the student x year x incident level, but additional de-duplication will be required to get the data to this level of uniqueness as an explicit incident identifier is not provided. Evidence suggests deduplication can be accomplished by grouping at the student x year x school x district x incident date level.

Incident reporting changes after the 2010-11 school year, with 34 incident types used in 2010-11, but only 12 aggregated types used in the subsequent years. Definitions of each can be seen in the tables below. The majority of incidents in each year are coded under the “Other” designation. In addition, each incident is assigned to 1 of 5 disciplinary actions (in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, removal by hearing officer, unilateral removal, and expulsion). Definitions of each can be seen in the tables below. While there are some guidelines and requirements around the severity of the disciplinary action, in many cases this is left to school/teacher discretion. Researchers should note that there are no disciplinary codes in the 2010-11 school year.

Out-of-school suspensions are the most common type of disciplinary action, encompassing approximately 75% of disciplinary actions across years. In-school suspensions account for an additional roughly 22-25% of disciplinary actions, and expulsions account for 1-2% of disciplinary actions. There are very few instances of unilateral removal or removal by a hearing officer.

Data Quality & Summary

There are a number of unique features of the discipline data that researchers should note. First, as mentioned above, there are no disciplinary codes for the 2010-11 school year, so those values will show up as missing for those years. There is no missingness for disciplinary codes in other years. There is no missingness on the incident codes across years (though most incidents are coded in the “Other” category). The length of the disciplinary action (ranging from 0.5 days to 888 days) is missing for 2010-11, but there is no missingness in other years.

Second, reporting of suspensions for students without IEPs was only mandatory for schools in the 2017-18 school year, but schools could report this voluntarily before and after, which led to a large increase in suspensions in 2017-18 and a decrease thereafter. There is also a large decrease in incidents reported in the 2020-2021 school year, which is likely related to the COVID-19 pandemic and virtual schooling.

Finally, the US Department of Education collects school-level aggregate data on discipline through the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). These data are collected every other year and are collected for students both with and without disabilities. School districts report these data directly to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), so there is no guaranteed relationship between the data reported to CEPI for inclusion in the K-12 discipline dataset and the data found in the CRDC. These data are the most correlated in 2017-18, when disciplinary incidences were required for all students (r=0.84 for out-of-school suspensions (OSS) and r=0.75 for in-school suspensions (ISS)). In general, however, correlations are high across years for students with IEPS (r~0.85 for OSS and r~0.75 for ISS), but low for students without IEPs in years where reporting for students without IEPs was not required (r~0.15).

Current reporting guidelines for incident types (post 2010-11):

Incident Type Description
Firearm Possession - Handgun Use or possession of a firearm that has a short stock and is designed to be held and fired by the use of a single hand.
Firearm Possession - Rifle/Shotgun Use of a weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder, and designed or redesigned and made or remade to use the energy of an explosive to fire through a smooth bore either a number of or a single projectile.
Firearm Possession - Other than Handgun, Rifle or Shotgun Use of a firearm other than a handgun or a rifle/shotgun, including any weapon converted to expel a projectile, any explosive, incendiary, poison gas, bomb, grenade, rocket/missile, mine or similar device.
Other Weapon Possession Use of a dagger, dirk, stiletto, knife with blade over three inches in length (NOTE: For students with an active IEP the blade measurement is two and one-half inches or longer), pocket knife opened by mechanical device, iron bar or brass knuckles.
Illicit Drug Possession or use of marijuana, hashish or other cannabinoids on school grounds. Possession or use of other illicit drugs on school grounds. Being under the influence of marijuana or illicit drugs on school grounds. Possession or use of prescription drugs that the student does not have a prescription for. Inappropriate use of medication on school grounds. Trafficking or possession for sale of marijuana or other illicit drugs on school grounds.
Alcohol Possession or use of alcohol on school grounds. Being under the influence of alcohol on school grounds.
Bomb or Similar Threat Any threat (verbal, written or electronic) by a person to bomb or use other substances or devices for the purpose of exploding, burning or causing damage to a school building or school property, or to harm students or staff.
Arson To unlawfully and intentionally damage, or attempt to damage, any real or personal property by fire or incendiary device.
Other Behaviors not covered by another code that result in disciplinary action.
Physical Violence with injury Injury in which one or more students, school personnel or other persons on school grounds require professional medical attention. Examples include stab or bullet wounds, concussions, fractured or broken bones, or cuts requiring stitches.
Physical Violence without injury Confrontation, tussle or physical aggression that does not result in injury.
Tobacco Tobacco possession or use on school grounds.

Disciplinary Action Descriptions

Disciplinary Action Description
In-School Suspension Instances in which a student is temporarily removed from their regular classroom(s) for disciplinary purposes but remains under the direct supervision of school personnel. Direct supervision means a school staff member is physically in the same location as students under its supervision.
Out-of-School Suspension Instances in which a child is temporarily removed from their regular school for disciplinary purposes to another setting (e.g., home, behavior center). For students with disabilities receiving special education programs or services, this includes both removals in which no IEP services are provided because the removal is 10 days or less and removals in which the child continues to receive services according to their IEP. Suspensions must be less than 60 days in duration.
Removal By Hearing Officer (Special education participants only) Instances in which an impartial hearing officer orders the removal of a child with disabilities from their current educational placement to an appropriate alternative educational setting for not more than 45 school days based on the hearing officer’s determination that maintaining the child’s current placement is substantially likely to result in injury to the child or others. The IEP team is responsible for determining the interim alternative educational setting.
Unilateral Removal (Special education participants only) Instances in which school personnel (not the IEP team) order the removal of children with disabilities from their current educational placement to an appropriate interim alternative educational setting for not more than 45 school days. The IEP team is responsible for determining the interim alternative educational setting. Unilateral removals do not include decisions by the IEP team to change a student’s placement.
Expulsion Instances in which the local educational agency removes a child from their regular school for disciplinary purposes for the remainder of the school year or longer in accordance with local educational agency policy. Include removals resulting from violations of the Gun-Free Schools Act that are modified to less than one year (365 days). Expulsions may be reported when the duration of days removed are 60 or more

Codebook

Category Variable Description
All SCHOOL_YEAR

The start and end years of the schoolyear that the student attended / received services during the collection used for this record.

All OPERATIONAL_DISTRICT_CODE

The official state assigned five digit code denoting the district of the entity held accountable for the student's graduation status.

All RIC

The unique student identifier--Research Identification Code.

All START_YEAR

The calendar year in which the school year began.

All SCHOOL_CODE

The entity code assigned to the School or Facility (Building) held accountable for the student's graduation status.

Discipline Records INCIDENT_TYPE_CODE_3

The code of the third incident associated with the reason that led to the disciplinary action.

Discipline Records FOLLOW_UP_NAME_3

The name that indicates the type of follow-up and/or educational services provided to the student after the start of the third disciplinary action(s) reported.

Discipline Records DISCIPLINARY_ACTION_CODE_2

The second reported code for the disciplinary action taken as a consequence of the incident.

Discipline Records INCIDENT_TYPE_NAME_2

The name of the second incident associated with the reason that led to the disciplinary action.

Discipline Records IS_SERIOUS_BODILY_INJURY

Flag that indicates when the Incident Type involved physical violence with injury.

Discipline Records INCIDENT_TYPE_NAME_4

The name of the fourth incident associated with the reason that led to the disciplinary action.

Discipline Records DISCIPLINARY_ACTION_CODE_1

The first reported code for the disciplinary action taken as a consequence of the incident.

Discipline Records START_OF_ACTION_1

The date on which the student began the first reported consequence.

Discipline Records DISCIPLINARY_ACTION_NAME_1

The first reported name of the disciplinary action taken as a consequence of the incident.

Discipline Records INCIDENT_TYPE_NAME_1

The name of the first incident associated with the reason that led to the disciplinary action.

Discipline Records INCIDENT_TYPE_CODE_4

The code of the fourth incident associated with the reason that led to the disciplinary action.

Discipline Records INCIDENT_DATE

The day the incident that led to the disciplinary action occurred.

Discipline Records IS_SEXUAL_ASSAULT

Flag that indicates when an incident of physical violence involved oral, anal, or vaginal penetration forcibly or against the person's will or where the victim is incapable of giving consent.

Discipline Records FOLLOW_UP_NAME_4

The name that indicates the type of follow-up and/or educational services provided to the student after the start of the fourth disciplinary action(s) reported.

Discipline Records INCIDENT_TYPE_CODE_1

The code of the first incident associated with the reason that led to the disciplinary action.

Discipline Records LENGTH_OF_ACTION_2

The number of days assigned for the second reported consequence in half-day increments.

Discipline Records LENGTH_OF_ACTION_3

The number of days assigned for the third reported consequence in half-day increments.

Discipline Records FOLLOW_UP_NAME_2

The name that indicates the type of follow-up and/or educational services provided to the student after the start of the second disciplinary action(s) reported.

Discipline Records INCIDENT_TYPE_CODE_2

The code of the second incident associated with the reason that led to the disciplinary action.

Discipline Records START_OF_ACTION_2

The date on which the student began the second reported consequence.

Discipline Records DISCIPLINARY_ACTION_NAME_3

The third reported name of the disciplinary action taken as a consequence of the incident.

Discipline Records FOLLOW_UP_CODE_1

The code that indicates the type of follow-up and/or educational services provided to the student after the start of the first disciplinary action(s) reported.

Discipline Records FOLLOW_UP_CODE_4

The code that indicates the type of follow-up and/or educational services provided to the student after the start of the fourth disciplinary action(s) reported.

Discipline Records START_OF_ACTION_3

The date on which the student began the third reported consequence.

Discipline Records FOLLOW_UP_NAME_1

The name that indicates the type of follow-up and/or educational services provided to the student after the start of the first disciplinary action(s) reported.

Discipline Records LENGTH_OF_ACTION_1

The number of days assigned for the first reported consequence in half-day increments.

Discipline Records DISCIPLINARY_ACTION_NAME_2

The second reported name of the disciplinary action taken as a consequence of the incident.

Discipline Records FOLLOW_UP_CODE_2

The code that indicates the type of follow-up and/or educational services provided to the student after the start of the second disciplinary action(s) reported.

Discipline Records DISCIPLINARY_ACTION_CODE_3

The third reported code for the disciplinary action taken as a consequence of the incident.

Discipline Records FOLLOW_UP_CODE_3

The code that indicates the type of follow-up and/or educational services provided to the student after the start of the third disciplinary action(s) reported.

Discipline Records INCIDENT_TYPE_NAME_3

The name of the third incident associated with the reason that led to the disciplinary action.