Brevard officials report mixed results on student discipline; tardy tracking drives referral rise

Brevard Public Schools student services staff told the school board that overall office discipline referrals rose in 2024–25 but that most of the increase is tied to new, more consistent tracking of student tardies.

“we have increased actually in our referrals that have been processed this year from, to approximately 7,293 or 8% increase,” Director of Student Services Mister Armstrong said, describing a three‑year comparison. He and other staff explained that an increase of 8,054 tardy referrals drove most of the overall rise because several schools piloted handheld devices to record tardies and began issuing detentions more consistently.

The increase in logged referrals contrasts with other improvements. Staff reported a 9% decrease in in‑school suspension (about 828 fewer ISS days), an 8% drop in students placed in alternative settings (from 658 to 603 students), and declines in three of the top five student behaviors tracked districtwide. Staff also reported the number of students receiving office discipline referrals rose by about 491 students — a 2% increase compared with the prior year.

The presentation also flagged concern about hate‑related incidents: staff said hate‑related offenses rose from about eight in the first semester to 42 for the year. Mister Armstrong said staff are “keeping an eye on that and making sure we're tracking that accurately to make sure we are, being transparent.”

On disproportionality, staff said some subgroups moved closer to the state risk‑ratio threshold of 1.0; District risk‑ratio measures for Black/African American and multiracial subgroups and for free‑and‑reduced‑price‑meal students showed reductions, though some disproportionality remains.

Staff also reviewed bullying, harassment and Title IX data: the district reported an overall decrease of 80 bullying investigations year‑to‑year (including a drop in both substantiated and unsubstantiated bullying cases), while substantiated harassment cases increased by 16. Staff said they had triaged roughly 189 possible Title IX matters to the code‑of‑conduct process rather than moving forward as formal Title IX complaints, and that only about 33% of Title IX cases closed within the recommended 60‑school‑day timeline.

“Out of these cases, 67% of them did not close within the window,” said a student services presenter, adding the district will focus next year on shortening investigation timelines and reducing administrative bottlenecks.

Staff described several near‑term implementation steps: rolling out a new case‑management software for bullying/Title IX to improve reporting and tracking, embedding the administrative‑hearing process into the district’s Focus system to reduce paperwork, unveiling Power BI dashboards to let schools disaggregate discipline data locally, and scheduling targeted trainings for administrators, assistant principals and bus drivers beginning in July and August.

Board members asked staff to increase survey response rates (board members and staff noted low participation among administrators and teachers on district surveys), and several trustees urged continued attention to consistent principal‑level enforcement of discipline policy and to follow‑up with teachers after referrals.

Staff characterized the overall findings as a mix of progress and ongoing work: more precise tracking produced higher referral counts, but several corrective actions and placement counts fell and some disproportionality measures showed improvement. Board members directed staff to continue planned training, digital tools rollout and monthly coordination with transportation and school leadership teams so the district can reduce case timelines and maintain consistency across schools.