Estacada reports 60% drop in physical incidents; district outlines tracking and limits for special-education suspensions
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Summary
Superintendent Carpenter told the RISE Committee the district has seen about a 60% decline in incidents of hitting, biting and kicking over three years, credited to new staffing and better tracking via OnCourse; special-education suspension limits and parent-notification practices were discussed.
Superintendent Carpenter told the RISE Committee the district has recorded substantial declines in student physical incidents and outlined how new staffing and tracking tools are shaping responses.
"We've seen a 60% reduction in students hitting, biting, and kicking," Carpenter said, attributing the trend to hiring more support staff and evolving strategies. Carpenter said the district will bring visualized data to the next meeting to show trends more clearly.
Carpenter described OnCourse, a software system adopted three years ago, as central to the improvement. Teachers and administrators log incidents into the system, which routes reports to principals, allows follow-up with families, and produces heat maps that help staff prioritize interventions by time of day and location.
The committee discussed how the district categorizes incidents. Carpenter said minor referrals are managed at the classroom level, while major referrals — incidents involving malice or intent to harm — are reported to the state and can trigger involvement from outside agencies. He emphasized legal constraints for students served under special-education plans: suspensions for those students are capped at 10 days in a school year, which complicates responses to repeated serious behaviors.
To support staff, Carpenter said the district has hired roughly 54 additional special-education staff, expanded psychology and counseling positions, and purchased staff communication devices ("about $500,000 worth" of Vocera units) so help can be summoned quickly. The district also uses calming rooms, paraeducator interventions and campus security monitors to manage escalations.
Committee members asked how and when parents are notified. Carpenter said staff typically contact parents immediately, but experiences vary by family; he invited follow-up offline on specific incidents to identify remediation and improve communication.
No disciplinary policy changes were adopted at the meeting; the committee asked for more detailed visual data and follow-up on specific parent-notification procedures at the next meeting.
