MANHATTAN — There were roughly 9,000 fewer suspensions in city schools last year than in the previous one — a 17 percent drop, Department of Education officials said.
In all, there were 44,626 suspensions in the 2014-2015 school year for the 1.1 million-student system, officials said.
The decline was even greater — a 20 percent dip — when comparing the number of suspensions in the spring term after the de Blasio administration announced changes to the school discipline code.
The changes came after social justice advocates clamored for reform, condemning the system for creating a "schools-to-prison pipeline," especially for black and Hispanic boys.
Under the new rules, principals must get approval from DOE headquarters before suspending a student who "defies authority" and the police department will have to report whenever they place students in handcuffs.
In addition to the drop-in suspensions, the number of school-based arrests and summonses by the School Safety Division also declined significantly. Arrests were down 27 percent from the year before and summonses fell by 15 percent, DOE officials said.
"By providing more support to students and training for teachers and working closely with school safety officers, we are making real progress,” Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said in a statement.
"While we have taken important steps in the right direction, reducing the need for suspensions and keeping our schools safe remains one of my top priorities — particularly for our black and Hispanic students and our students with special needs — and we are working tirelessly toward that end."
The DOE also requires that schools have a "de-escalation plan" to handle violent or other disruptive situations before suspension is necessary and is increasing de-escalation training, including more professional development for teachers and administrators in conflict resolution.
Other changes include more guidance counselors for court-involved and incarcerated students and the creation of “School Climate Leadership Teams” to evaluate the effectiveness of reforms.
Advocates for reforming school discipline applauded the drop-in suspensions, but said suspensions are still affecting black students at much higher rates than others.
Black students made up nearly 52 percent suspensions in the 2014-2015 school year, while they only make up about 26 percent of the city's school population.
"The continued trend of suspensions going down is a good sign, but the alarmingly high rate of ... black students being suspended ... should be a major concern for the city," said Kesi Foster, coordinator of the Urban Youth Collaborative student organizing group.
The group — which has been working to cut down on an over-use of suspensions and zero tolerance policies that involve police in minor incidents — believes there are “pervasive racial injustices in how discipline is carried out," Foster said.
To start tackling it, training should incorporate “a racial and gender lens” and that training in bias should also be offered to schools, he said.
"If we are going to address the racial inequities in school discipline, we need to identify the policy changes we need and commit the necessary resources to close the discipline gap," he said.
