Wauwatosa officials report fewer suspensions but say Black students remain disproportionately disciplined

Daryl Hansen, director of student success, said the district's student attendance rate "increased almost 1% between 22–23 and the 23–24 school year and is now maintaining at 94%." District presenters told the board the same update showed declines in out-of-school and in-school suspensions and in major office disciplinary referrals after the district's disciplinary framework was adopted.

The presentation also flagged persistent disparities. Stacy Clum, director of special education, said risk-ratio figures on a slide showed "a Black student is 8.83 times more likely to receive an office discipline referral than a White student" and that "a student with disabilities is 2.83 times more likely to receive an office discipline referral" than a student not identified with a disability. Staff described those numbers as "concerning" and said the district remains identified by the state for disproportionality.

Why this matters: the state monitors risk ratio and asks districts to demonstrate measurable year-over-year reductions; presenters said the Department of Public Instruction looks for roughly a 0.225 reduction per year over a two-year period before moving to an on-watch designation in a third year. District staff said they have made measurable reductions in some metrics but must do more to address uneven outcomes across student groups.

District officials described next steps rather than immediate policy changes. Luke Pinion, chief of pupil and family supports, said the district will "engage in another root cause analysis" and work with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and with school teams to reallocate Comprehensive Coordinated Early Intervening Services funds based on identified needs. He said DPI has "been proud and continually appraises the work that we're doing around DISPRO" but that the district must understand a recent rise after an earlier drop.

The presentation also reported a drop in administrative (pre-expulsion) hearings: staff said hearings fell from 74 and 71 in the prior two years to 39 this year. Presenters said the majority were classified as endangering health and safety or repeated refusal; district staff said about 14 students returned to school with supports built into plans, 23 moved to other environments with supports and two families withdrew. There were zero expulsion hearings this year, which staff identified as a positive development.

District staff emphasized training and consistency as part of the plan to reduce disparities: they pointed to upcoming discipline norming sessions with all administrators, continued threat-assessment refreshers, expansion where possible of the 'champions' program and deeper data work at the school level to align practices. The board will receive the finalized presentation at its August meeting.

The presentation was recorded July 21 and will be presented to the board and public on August 11.