What do 24,625 Oklahoma sixth- through 12th-graders represent?
"This is the number of students that were suspended for any amount of time — one day, three days, semester — any amount of time," said Oklahoma State Department of Education Director of Alternative Education Jennifer Wilkinson.
Those figures are for the 2016-2017 school year. Nearly 70 percent of those students are male, and males make up a higher proportion of suspended students at all levels in sixth through 12th grades. The number of students getting out-of-school suspensions peaked in seventh grade overall and for boys, and in ninth grade for girls.
Oklahoma schools gave students in sixth through 12th grades almost 71,000 in-school suspensions last school year.
"In-school suspension is where a student is serving their punishment within the school day, within the school building, but their movement and their interaction may be limited," Wilkinson said.
The State Department of Education tracks in-school suspensions by number of incidents and out-of-school suspensions by number of students. The number of in-school suspensions peaked in eighth grade, with almost 14,000 of them issued. High-school seniors got fewer than 4,400.
