North Penn School District administrators told the Safe Schools Committee that districtwide detentions in the first marking period of the 2025–26 school year fell from 1,227 to 1,018, a decline they attributed largely to consistent enforcement of the district’s cell-phone policy and to improved incident coding across buildings.

Doctor Nicholson, who presented the discipline report, said the data cover the marking period that ended Nov. 5 and emphasized three definitions used in reporting: unique students (unduplicated), percentage of population (unduplicated students divided by total enrollment), and number of suspensions (which counts repeat events). Nicholson warned that changes in coding mean some categories now appear higher because incidents previously labeled under other tags were reclassified.

"Happy to report that so far this school year ... our detentions are much lower than they were last school year," Nicholson said, noting the drop from 1,227 to 1,018 detentions in the same time frame. He said the district completed a summer effort to align codes and roll the elementary-level SWIS data into Infinite Campus so every building now uses the same incident definitions.

Administrators highlighted several specifics: in-school and out-of-school suspension totals are broadly similar to last year, while some categories, such as physical aggression, increased in count because all 18 buildings are now reporting with the same codes. Nicholson used cutting class as an example of a growing issue: unique students in in‑school suspension for cutting rose from 29 to 57, which the administration said it will investigate using Infinite Campus’ location and time reporting to identify when and where cuts occur.

Nicholson also described the Youth Aid Panel diversion program (YAP), which the district expanded to middle schools this year. He said 12 students across grades 7–12 have gone through hearings so far; four have completed program requirements, six remain in progress, and two did not complete the program. "If they successfully complete it, theyare not referred to the police," Nicholson said, describing YAP as an alternative that can reduce or replace suspension outcomes for first-time offenders.

Doctor Bauer underscored that the district has a memorandum of understanding with local police that allows the district to run diversionary hearings in coordination with the Montgomery County district attorney’s office. Bauer offered to meet with a member of the public to reconcile apparent differences between the district’s reporting and state dashboards.

The committee asked for recurring spot checks, defined code dictionaries, and regular training to prevent "goal-post" drift in how incidents are classified. Committee members said the quarterly reporting practice — rather than annual reporting — gives the board and the public more timely oversight.

A motion to approve the minutes from the Oct. 27 meeting was called at the start of the session and passed by voice vote; the committee then received the discipline briefing as an informational item with no formal action taken on policy changes.

Next steps the administration offered include: publishing corrected slides for the report, using Infinite Campus reports to analyze class-cutting by period and location, and continuing biweekly administrative reviews and principal training to maintain coding consistency.