2016-17 Suspension Count by Most Serious Offense Category

This report displays the annual K–12 public school total count of discipline outcomes (suspensions or expulsions) for students involved in one or more incident¹ by Ethnicity, Program Subgroup, or Academic Year for the selected year for the selected reporting level (state, county, district, or school). Although a student may have committed multiple offenses as part of a single incident, each student is only counted once per incident for which they were disciplined. For reporting purposes, suspensions and expulsions² are counted within the Federal Offense Category corresponding to the most severe offense each student committed within a given incident (see Report Glossary).

In this report, students whose only offense was violating California Education Code Section 48900(k), otherwise known as "Defiance," are counted under the "Defiance Only” for category.

The discipline data are submitted by local educational agencies (LEAs) and charter schools to the California Department of Education (CDE) as part of the annual End of Year 3 (EOY 3) data submission in the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS). Discipline and Cumulative Enrollment data are reviewed and certified in CALPADS as being accurate by authorized district or school personnel. Cumulative Enrollment data were not included as part of the EOY 3 data submission in years 2011–12 through 2015–16, but were extracted from the CALPADS Operational Data Store (ODS) for these years; however, Cumulative Enrollment data are included as part of the EOY 3 submission for 2016–17 onward. In order to certify data in CALPADS, authorized district or charter school personnel are required to review the accuracy of all data associated with the applicable CALPADS submission. CALPADS certification is a two-step process with Level-2 certification reserved for the district superintendents, charter school administrators, or their designees. Please contact the district or school if you have any questions about their certified CALPADS data.

Source: Discipline and Cumulative Enrollment data are submitted and certified by LEAs and/or charter schools as part of the annual CALPADS EOY 3 submission.

¹An incident is defined as one or more students committing one or more offenses on the same date at the same time.
²Expulsion counts include all expulsions, even those expulsions where the term of the expulsion has been shortened or the enforcement of the expulsion was suspended.

Federal Offense Categories, Defiance Only, and "Other"

In order to report summaries of student-level disciplinary outcomes (suspensions and expulsions), the CDE has mapped each of the 33 California Education Code sections reported in CALPADS to their corresponding Federal Offense categories and the following suggested Federal severity hierarchy:

• Violent Incident (Injury)
• Violent Incident (No Injury)
• Weapons Possession (No Injury)
• Illicit Drug Related (Includes Alcohol)
• Defiance Only (Not Part of the Federal Hierarchy)
• Other (Not Part of the Federal Hierarchy)

IMPORTANT NOTE: For DataQuest reporting, all suspensions and expulsions are counted under the Federal Offense Category associated with the most severe offense committed by a student in an incident, unless the most severe offense committed belongs to the “Defiance Only” or “Other” non-federal categories.

Violent Incident (Injury)

This Federal Offense Category includes the following California Education Code sections:

Violent Incident (No Injury)

This Federal Offense Category includes the following California Education Code sections:

Weapons Possession

This Federal Offense Category includes the following California Education Code sections:

Illicit Drug Related (Includes Alcohol)

This Federal Offense Category includes the following California Education Code sections:

“Defiance Only” for Suspension/Expulsion

Any suspension or expulsion associated with a student in which the only offense committed by a student is Disruption is considered a “Defiance Only” incident.

“Other” Reason for Suspension/Expulsion

This category includes the following California Education Code sections, most of which are NOT included in any of the Federal Offense Categories. The only offense that is reportable in the Federal category of “Other” is EC 48900(m)—Possession of an Imitation Firearm:

¹See Section “Federal Offense Categories (And ‘Other’)” for more information.
²Tobacco related offenses are listed under the “Other” offense category for DataQuest reporting purposes, however, these same offenses are reported under the “Illicit Drug” offense category to the Federal US Department of Education.