Northshore review finds fewer suspensions but rising recorded incidents and racial disproportionality concerns

Dr. Wellington, a district staff member, told the Northshore School District Board that recorded disciplinary incidents rose 15% in 2023–24 even though the number of students suspended fell. He said the increase in incidents was concentrated in middle school, while high school incidents decreased and elementary incidents were roughly steady.

The presentation said middle school incidents rose about 43% (roughly 300 students), misuse of technology incidents rose 56% (about 381 additional incidents), and recorded hate-speech incidents increased from 46 to 108. The district reported about 22,300 K–12 students in the roll and 3,204 students had one or more recorded incidents in the year (roughly 14% of students). Staff also said 50.2% of students with incidents had only one incident and roughly 70% had two or fewer.

Wellington described a shift in how schools respond to misconduct. “Discipline is a product of rules and policies and expectations of adults,” he said, adding that “data is a product of the systems that we create as educators.” He and other staff said administrators are using administrative conferences (restorative conversations with a principal or assistant principal) more often: administrative conferences rose 81% across grades and rose sharply in middle school. The district reported that many incidents that previously would have resulted in detention, Saturday school or suspension are now being handled with restorative conferences.

Board members and parents asked for detail on where changes came from. Deputy Superintendent Bergey said the district revised the discipline rulebook, removed two nebulous categories (disruptive conduct and failure to follow procedure) and replaced them with clearer language to ensure corrective attempts are documented before higher-level consequences are applied. Bergey said attorneys trained administrators on discipline law and special-education rules and that Director Farrell’s student services team led training on harassment, intimidation and bullying (reporting and investigation protocols).

Staff emphasized the district’s expanded restorative-practices training. Wellington credited broad professional development and school-level leadership for the change in practice: principals and assistant principals now front-load restorative interventions early in the school year, he said, and many administrators are spending weekly time on structured administrative-conference materials.

The district presented disaggregated data showing year-over-year changes by demographic group. Staff reported declines in the percent of students suspended in several groups: Black/African American suspensions dropped from 5.5% to 4.3%, Hispanic/Latinx from 4.1% to 3.2%, and students identifying as two or more races from 2.3% to 1.5%. Special-education students’ incidents per student rose (from 0.88 to 1.03 incidents per student), but suspensions, detentions and Saturday-school assignments for special-education students decreased; special-education students were more likely to end a disciplinary process with an administrative conference (12% → 20%). Wellington said the pattern suggests restorative practices are reaching multiple demographic groups, but board members and parents asked that staff continue to investigate remaining disproportionalities.

Board members asked clarifying questions about how counts are presented. Wellington explained that some slides omit cells with 10 or fewer students to protect privacy and that one table shows number of students while another shows incidents (a single student can have multiple incidents). A board member asked whether expulsions are counted; Wellington said expulsions are so rare they were not reported on the slide. A board member also asked how many suspensions stemmed from manifestation determinations under state special-education law; staff confirmed relevant cases are governed by state law and said they would follow up with more detail.

Parents and a board member praised the focus on restorative approaches and called out the Family Engagement Center and Dr. Eva Thomas’s team for outreach and education that they said has increased reporting and helped staff identify and classify incidents such as hate speech.

District staff said the materials shown at the meeting extend the Goal 3 monitoring report the board began at a prior meeting and that a formal monitoring report will be on the board agenda March 24. The presentation included requests from the board for continued year-to-year consistency in measures, more disaggregation where useful, and clarification of counts and definitions.

The report listed multiple technical and adaptive steps the district has taken: rulebook revisions, legal training on discipline and special education, harassment/ bullying investigation training, and systemwide restorative-practice professional development. Staff said those combined technical and adaptive efforts appear to be reducing suspensions while increasing restorative administrative conferences.

Board discussion closed with members asking staff to continue analyzing disproportionality and to return with further clarifications in upcoming monitoring materials.