A new state audit Thursday found a number of New York City students are facing repeat disciplinary action — while schools fail to properly intervene.
Over four school years during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 16,600 students — or 30% of all 54,600 students who were suspended or briefly removed from class — were disciplined multiple times, according to the audit by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
Of them, 41% had no record of support or interventions, such as counseling or a referral to services outside of school.
Students who committed the most serious offenses — such as having a weapon or selling illegal drugs — and were hit with the longest suspensions are required to continue learning at “alternative locations.” But young people were absent from those instructional programs, on average, for 54% of school days.
Auditors also uncovered racial disparities in the lengths of suspensions, particularly for Black students, and examples of suspensions that exceeded the city’s own 20-day limit.
“My auditors found concerning trends and deficiencies that indicate the need for stronger monitoring and improvements by New York City Public Schools to better support at-risk students,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “I urge school officials to act on our recommendations to keep these students from falling through the cracks.”
The comptroller’s audit ran from the 2019-20 through the 2022-23 school years, an extraordinary time when school buildings were closed or shifting between remote and in-person classes during the pandemic, and fewer opportunities for suspension-level infractions. After schools reopened, many students struggled to readjust to the classroom, and teachers reported more kids were acting out.
Those unique circumstances may cut different ways.
In a written response to the audit, Mark Rampersant, the educational system’s top school safety official, said the report is “fundamentally limited in its interpretation” because of the audit period. Auditors countered COVID-era disruptions had a lasting impact on school climates, and it’s important to understand those changes for the future.
Of the students disciplined multiple times, the vast majority, 92%, were disciplined fewer than five times over the four school years. The number of incidents resulting in a suspension or removal peaked between the 7th through 9th grades.
In 2019, the city implemented a new policy that capped suspensions at 20 days, with an exception for the most dangerous or violent offenses. But auditors found 113 students were kicked out of class for longer than the limit for behavior that, while harmful, did not cross that threshold — a finding that local education officials disputed, without providing documentation. Officials said there were six examples of lengthy suspensions, each under extenuating circumstances.
In another finding, the report said Black and Hispanic students were disciplined for bullying for an average of 6 and 5 days, respectively, compared with 4 days for white and Asian students. Again, school officials disagreed with the comptroller’s methodology.
The comptroller’s office raised the possibility the lengthy and repeat suspensions and removals “with little to no corresponding support and intervention” could have the unintended consequence of exacerbating student misconduct, instead of improving it.
Rampersant, of the city schools, stressed the vast majority of students will not come in contact with the disciplinary system in a given school year. For example, the total number of disciplinary incidents in the 2022-23 school year represented just 4% of enrollment. (The comptroller’s office defended its audit as focused on the disciplinary system, not the overall rate of disciplinary action.)
The school safety official cautioned against lumping together teacher removals — which may be as short as one period in an effort to get a class quickly under control — with suspensions that can last weeks or longer. Excluding removals, there were 9,193 suspensions in the first half of last school year, down nearly 27% since before the pandemic, according to the school system’s own reports.
Rampersant also questioned whether a handful of run-ins with the disciplinary system over multiple school years really amounted to a “high rate,” as characterized by the comptroller.
The Daily News has reached out to the city’s school system for comment.