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ACCORDING TO PSS SPED
Long-term suspension, expulsion rate drops
According to Public School System Special Education director Suzanne Lizama, the long-term suspension rate and expulsion rate for general education students are at their lowest since Fiscal Year 2008-2009, and displayed a significant drop for special education students compared to last year.
The general education population showed a 0.092-percent drop in FY 2013-2014, which raised significantly in FY 2014-2015, at 0.16 percent of students either getting long-term suspension or expulsion. The general education population shows that 0.03 percent of students receive long-term suspension or expulsion in FY 2015-2016.
Fiscal year 2015-2016 displays a difference of 0.08 percent when compared to special education students receiving long-term suspension and expulsion at 0.11 percent.
Special education students got long-term suspension and expulsion at 0.55 percent for FY 2014-2015. The difference of 0.44 percentage points from FY 2014-2015’s 0.55 percent compared to FY 2015-2016’s 0.11 percent is a significant decrease in suspension and expulsion among the special education population.
FY 2014-2015 showed even worse statistics, with a difference of 0.39 percent between general education students and special education students getting long-term suspension and expulsion, while fiscal year 2015-2016 shows that only 0.08 percent gets the same sanctions.
Through these statistics, Lizama shared that, “Overall, it’s a good year, but there is always room for improvement.”
The statistics were taken from the Individuals under the Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004’s Part B for FY 2015-2016 Annual Performance Report.
The IDEA evaluates the efforts of public agents to provide special education and related services to those that are in need of such services nationwide.
