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MCPS staff report discipline disparities; students with disabilities disproportionately suspended
Summary
A division report on first-semester discipline data found students with IEPs/504 plans are disproportionately represented in in- and out-of-school suspensions. Staff described risk-index/risk-ratio methods, recent discipline-matrix changes, SEL interventions and planned student focus groups to inform corrective actions.
Montgomery County Public Schools staff told the board that discipline-monitoring data for the first semester show persistent disparities by student subgroup and that the division is pursuing data-driven interventions.
Stacy Wright, director of equity and diversity, said the division used behavior and administrative-response codes, a progressive-discipline matrix and risk-index/risk-ratio analysis (the method compares the share of incidents within a subgroup to other groups) to identify disparities. Wright described the three most frequent incident codes leading to in-school suspension as: being in an unauthorized area, interfering with learning, and refusal to comply with staff requests. She said the district is working to understand root causes and reduce punitive responses where appropriate.
Rob Ratcliffe, director of technology, explained how the risk index and risk ratio are calculated. He reported that, by the data used in the presentation, students with IEPs or 504 plans were roughly 2.72 times more likely to receive in‑school suspension and about 3.84 times more likely to receive out‑of‑school suspension than students without those plans. Ratcliffe also reported divisionwide totals used for context: 42,477 student absences this school year to date and 1,241 absences attributable to out‑of‑school suspension (about 2.92 percent of absences in the dataset used).
Wright and Ratcliffe outlined ongoing and planned strategies, including reimplementation of a consistent discipline matrix intended to promote equitable outcomes, expanded SEL curriculum (Move This World and Ripple Effects), professional development for principals and teachers, renewed focus tables and share-table practices to reduce food waste, and small student focus groups beginning in February to gather qualitative context from students about attendance and school climate.
Board members welcomed the transparency and asked for more granular breakdowns (for example, how the percentages are calculated by subgroup denominators) and more explicit improvement plans targeted to students with disabilities. Officials said they will provide follow-up analyses and produce plans that can be discussed and approved by the board.
