After Covid Bump, Suspension Drop In Sight

In-school and out-of-school suspensions are on the decline, with 151 taking place during the first month of the current school year — in comparison to 205 during that same time last year.

Even with that drop, the suspension numbers are still above where the district was pre-pandemic, when the district saw 142 suspensions in the first month of the 2019 school year.

That data was presented to the Board of Education during its Oct. 10 meeting, which was held in-person at the Barack Obama School on Farnham Avenue and online via Zoom. 

NHPS Director of Research, Assessment and Evaluation John Nguyen presented school board members and the public with the city school district’s recent history of discipline data, which dated back to the 2019 – 2020 partial pre-pandemic year and stretched through the current 2023 – 2024 school year’s first month. 

Following the discipline data presentation, staffers of the district’s Office of Youth, Family and Community Engagement led a presentation detailing the district’s social, emotional, learning and restorative practice approaches to proactively address students’ behavioral concerns. 

Click here to view the full presentation. 

The discipline data provide a backdrop for the historical shifts throughout the district in recent years, Nguyen said, as schools work to implement social-emotional learning and follow through on the district’s restorative practice-focused code of conduct, which was approved by the board in 2021. 

The data was presented from three perspectives: NHPS’ discipline numbers over the past four years; comparisons to fellow large cities in Connecticut; and comparisons of first-month data for bus suspensions, expulsions, and in- and out-of-school suspensions. 

Since 2019, NHPS has seen a gradual increase in out-of-school suspensions and some fluctuation for in-school suspension rates. 

Nguyen’s presentation did not include data for the 2020 – 2021 school year as a result of schools being closed in-person during the Covid pandemic and shifting to remote learning. 

During the 2019 – 2020 school year, the district had 1,126 out-of-school suspensions and 327 in-school suspensions. 

In 2021 – 2022, it had 1,943 out-of-school suspensions and 124 in-school suspensions. 

And in 2022 – 2023, the district had a total of 2,444 out-of-school suspensions and 253 in-school suspensions. 

After the return from remote learning, Nguyen explained that suspensions increased because ​“a lot has to do with the lack of social interactions with other students and when they came back to school, we had many issues.” 

Compared to Waterbury, Hartford, and Bridgeport, Nguyen reported, New Haven has had the lowest discipline rates since 2017. 

For the first month’s data, which includes incidents up until Sept. 30, in-school and out-of-school suspensions have both declined year over year.

In a breakdown by grade level for first-month discipline rates, ninth-grade students have had the highest number of incidents both this year and last school year. 

The data show a slight decline in the number of suspensions for ninth graders, from 46 during the first month last year to 41 for the first month this year.

The next highest number of suspension incidents apply to tenth graders and K‑6 students for both this year and last year. 

Nguyen noted that for each grade ​“there has been a decrease for this school year to last school year.” 

He concluded with data for the specific incident types schools have faced this year and last year for the first month. 

The highest reason for discipline for both years has been for fights and physical altercations, which led to 69 suspension incidents in the first month of the 2022 school year and 47 in that same time this year. 

Some increasing reasons since last year are for possession or use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, which Nguyen explained is because of the ​“prevalence of availability of that throughout our city,” as well as skipping class. 

Doubling Down On SEL

Presenters for the SEL work on Monday included NHPS Youth, Family & Community Chief Gemma Joseph Lumpkin and her team members Social Emotional Learning Coordinator Monica Abbott, SEL coach Bill Scott, restorative practice coach Nakisha Cadore, and John S. Martinez Assistant Principal Lauren Sepulveda. 

“This is not new work that we’re embarking upon here. New Haven has always been a Comer district and for years had a very robust social development department,” said Scott. ​“Rather, what we are striving to do is to preserve and build upon the success and groundwork that has been laid as we continue to center around the whole child.” 

He added that SEL work is critical because ​“we can’t teach our kids if we can’t reach our kids.” 

Scott described simple but effective preventative and proactive efforts happening in school buildings, like teachers high-fiving students in the halls, principals wearing a tutu to make kids smile when they get off bus in the morning, and facilitating daily restorative circles in classrooms as the district and school teams track behavioral data to drive its approaches. 

Cadore highlighted that 80 percent of restorative work is preventative. This is done by aiding students in their needs to focus in class, creating community building classrooms, and supporting teachers in having daily restorative circles. 

She reported that so far 750 students have been impacted with circles and more than 200 restorative circles have been arranged.

Abbott shared about the district’s multi-tiered support system which focused on meeting students’ academic and social/emotional needs. 

“When we’re looking at the climate and culture we’re not only thinking about the core emotional needs of our students but we’re also thinking about the staff. We’re thinking about the staff beyond selfcare to think about things that Bill and Nakisha both shared, how do we provide direct services to really support the educators in the building, teachers, principals, etc, to know that we are all in this together,” Abbott said. 

This support recently looks like providing educators with information about classroom obstacles related to challenges like student mental health. This is happening through cohorts of Mental Health First Aid trainings as well as by using ESSER funds to provide adaptive furniture and calming tools in buildings. 

The district uses the SEL tool called Review360 to help with collecting data in schools on behavioral incidents to track what’s working and then replicate in other places. 

Currently 27 schools uses the Review360 tool. 

Direct services are also provided through care coordinators, families, community partners, and behavior specialists. 

Behavioral incident data from the first month of last year and this year’s first month show a 33 percent decline in individual incidents.

What's Working At Martinez

Sepulveda concluded with data from Martinez, which has had zero suspensions, zero expulsions, and three office referral incidents that were addressed with parent support. 

Last year Martinez ended with 45 percent of its seventh graders reaching proficiency or higher in literacy, 36 percent of eighth graders reaching proficiency in literacy, 38 percent of eight graders reaching proficiency in science, and 24 percent of fifth graders reaching proficiency in math. 

The school’s absenteeism rate is 6.5 percent, Sepulveda added. 

“Our students are coming to our school. They’re wanting to learn,” she said. ​“We can’t assume that our students are coming to us with everything that we need them to know, that’s what we’re in the business of.” 

Additional recent efforts to support students at Martinez include having students identify an adult they can trust if they ever need support, a care closet in the school’s clinic to provide basic needs like deodorant or shampoo, keeping an active PTO and SPMT, offering an annual three-day leadership retreat, providing student voice in its students council and by allowing students to pick their electives, having a refocus room for student peer mediations, town meetings with parents, and by using Review360 to help students take ownership over their action to resolve harm done to the community. 

“It’s always with the goal of bringing our kids back in the classroom,” Sepulveda said. 

She concluded by highlighting a program established last year where using Review360 data the school identified that K‑2 students would benefit from mentorship from the middle schoolers. Each week the students get paired with a ​“big” and have breakfast together and build relationships through attendance activities. 

“Nothing is ever done without purpose or without reason. We believe this because we’re growing our students for more than just compliance in the classroom, we’re growing them to be productive members of society so we believe full heartedly in social emotional learning,” she said.

Board member Matt Wilcox requested another discipline report after the district’s first marking period that includes arrest data and school by school restorative practice data. 

Additionally board member Darnell Goldson requested data on which schools have in-school suspension spaces and information on how not all buildings offer an in-school suspension option.