Education

Crime, suspensions, expulsions down in NC schools, dropouts up slightly

North Carolina public schools saw a drop in crime, suspensions and expulsions last school year, but a slight increase in students who dropped out, according to data released Thursday by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

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School lockers
By
Kelly Hinchcliffe
, WRAL education reporter
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina public schools saw a drop in crime, suspensions and expulsions last school year, but a slight increase in students who dropped out, according to data released Thursday by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
Findings in the state's annual Consolidated Data Report, which includes school crime, suspension and dropout data, included the following:
Reportable crimes

The number of reportable crimes by high school students decreased by 231 from 2015-16 to 2016-17, a 4.0% decrease. The high school reportable crime rate decreased 4.9%. There was an overall decrease in reportable crimes for all grades of 186, a decrease of 1.9%. The overall crime rate decrease was 2.1%. The number of reportable crimes in grades K-13 decreased by 1.9% in 2016-17, and the rate decreased by 2.1%.

Short-term suspensions

There were 83,300 grades 9-13 short-term suspensions reported statewide in 2016-17, a decrease of 5.9% from the 2015-16 total of 88,559.

Long-term suspensions

The number of long-term suspensions (11 or more days) for all students declined 32.9% from 1,036 in 2015-16 to 695 in 2016-17.  Average school days per suspension decreased from 76.6 to 73.9 school days. High school students received 458 long-term suspensions, a 34.8% decrease from 2015-16.

Expulsions

The number of expulsions decreased 33.3% from 27 in 2015-16 to 18 in 2016-17. High school students received 17 of the 18 expulsions.

Dropouts

High schools in North Carolina reported 11,097 dropouts in 2016-17. The grade 9-13 dropout rate in 2016-17 was 2.31%, up from the 2.29% reported for 2015-16. The increase in the dropout rate was 0.9%.

Most frequently reported school crimes, 2016-17 (all grades)
  1. Possession of controlled substance 4,289
  2. Possession of a weapon, excluding firearms 2,745
  3. Assault on school personnel, no serious injury 1,431
  4. Possession of alcoholic beverage 882
  5. Sexual assault (no rape or sexual offense) 107
  6. Possession of a firearm or powerful explosive 105
  7. Bomb threat 89
  8. Assault resulting in serious injury 65
  9. Assault involving use of a weapon 48
  10. Sexual offense 47

The following categories experienced increases from 2015-16 to 2016-17 (numerical increase and percent increase in parentheses):

  • Assault on school personnel (102, 7.7%)
  • Assault resulting in serious injury (36, 124.1%)
  • Sexual offense (31, 193.8%)
  • Sexual assault (25, 30.5%)
  • Bomb threat (20, 29.0%)
  • Assault involving use of a weapon (9, 23.1%)
  • Burning of a school building (7, 87.5%)
  • Rape (1, 100%)
  • Taking indecent liberties with a minor (1)

The numbers of the crimes below decreased from 2015-16 to 2016-17 (numerical decrease and percent decrease in parentheses):

  • Possession of controlled substance in violation of law (350, 7.5%)
  • Possession of an alcoholic beverage (52, 5.6%)
  • Possession of a firearm (13, 11.0%)
  • Death by other than natural causes (1, 100%)
  • Robbery with a dangerous weapon (1, 11.1%)
  • Possession of a weapon excluding firearms and powerful explosives (1, 0.04%)

The State Board of Education plans to review the draft report at its meeting next Wednesday.

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