Board reviews first D-525 employee-injury report after district records show 319 incidents

The Bartholomew Con School Corp board on July 20 reviewed its first annual employee-injury report compiled under policy D-525, which administration said recorded 319 unique incidents in the 2025-26 school year.

Dr. Phillips introduced the report and stressed it represents an initial effort to compile information across available workers'comp and health records. "This is the first time collecting or reporting this data in this format," Dr. Phillips said, adding that some data elements the policy requests were not available because they reside in a separate student-discipline system.

During the presentation, administrators and building leads described the district's follow-up process for each claim. "Once we get a claim, that claim is then sent to myself," said Dr. Hackett, who explained the office contacts building principals to gather context, determine whether additional supports are needed, and follow up with staff. He said administrators review incidents case by case and ask whether the affected staff or students need additional support.

Board members emphasized two themes: the value of increased reporting and the need to avoid alarming public perception absent context. "I very much like to thank all of you for putting this together," said Mister Major, who noted the number is higher than earlier counts and urged the board to use the data to identify causes and corrective actions. He added, "It would be great if this number went down because less incidences happened."

Administrators said the distribution of incidents skewed to younger grades and to schools that house life-skills or emotional-disability programs. Dr. Hackett said K'2 grades account for a large share of recorded incidents and that classrooms serving students with disabilities have higher counts; he added some incidents represent non-aggressive contacts (for example, a teacher stepping in between students) that are nevertheless reported when staff seek medical evaluation. "They were in this situation," he said, explaining why certain low-severity entries still appear in the workers'comp-sourced report.

The report also identified limitations in data collection: the policy requires documenting whether a person used an object or weapon, but administrators said they could not reliably populate that field because nurse forms and discipline records are kept in separate systems that do not communicate. The district said it will ask school nurses to include the relevant detail on future forms and refine reporting next year.

Board members asked for additional breakdowns and cautioned against misreading the figures without context. Dr. Phillips reminded the board the district serves roughly 11,200 students and that the majority of students and families have positive experiences with the schools. He said the district will continue to analyze the data to inform training, staffing and prevention efforts.

The board did not take formal action on the report but discussed next steps for deeper analysis and potential targeted supports for schools with higher incident counts.

What happens next: district staff said they will refine data collection to capture objects or weapons when they occur, provide school-by-school analysis to the board, and consider whether additional supports or training are warranted in specific buildings.