HCPSS report shows overall suspension rate of 2.4% but disproportionate impact on Black and special-education students
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Summary
District officials told the board that Howard County’s out-of-school suspension rate was 2.4% in 2025 (about 1,340 unique students) but Black/African American students were suspended roughly four times more often than other students; the district described targeted CCEIS and data-review strategies and acknowledged staffing and resource limits to expanding in‑school alternatives.
Laurel Porter, executive director of student well-being, told the Howard County Board of Education on Dec. 16 that the district’s overall out-of-school suspension rate remained at 2.4% in the 2025 school year and that this rate translates to about 1,340 unique students suspended out of 56,033 enrolled.
Porter and colleagues emphasized risk-ratio findings showing that Black/African American students were suspended at roughly four times the rate of their peers. They also reported that students receiving special education services were suspended approximately three to four times more often than other students, and that Black students receiving special education services were about three times more likely to be suspended than other special-education students.
District staff described a four-pronged strategy to address disproportionality: school-linked disproportionate-discipline data review as a required school improvement plan strategy, targeted supports through the Comprehensive Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CCEIS) team (embedded staff in four focus schools), strategic-plan alignment on fair and clear expectations, and biweekly discipline-data review. The district also described partnerships—e.g., mediation and conflict-resolution staffing in one middle school—and plans to review the code of conduct for clarity and alignment.
Board members pressed staff on root causes (implicit bias, school culture, programmatic alternatives to suspension, and availability of in-school interventions) and on whether anti-bias training and real-time coaching are being implemented. Staff said systemwide anti-bias professional learning had been delivered in the prior year and that the CCEIS team is providing in-school coaching and interventions in select focus schools.
Why this matters: The data highlight a persistent disproportionality problem with potential civil-rights and regulatory implications under MSDE and IDEA, and they point to system and school-level choices about how to allocate staff and interventions.
Board actions and follow-up: District leaders said they will continue quarterly reviews, provide more implementation details to the board and monitor the focus schools to determine which strategies are replicable; no immediate district-wide policy change was adopted during the meeting.
Ending: The presentation closed with an agreement to follow up with more detailed action steps and to report progress as the district pilots interventions in focus schools.
