Table 13. Percentage of public schools reporting that specified disciplinary actions were allowable, by selected school characteristics: School year 2003

Crime and Safety Surveys

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Table 13. Percentage of public schools reporting that specified disciplinary actions were allowable, by selected school characteristics: School year 2003–04

School characteristic	Percentage of schools allowing specific disciplinary action
School characteristic	Referral to school counselor	Assigned to program to reduce disciplinary problems during school hours	Assigned to program to reduce disciplinary problems outside of school hours	Kept off school bus due to mis- behavior	Corporal punish- ment	Put on school probation	Detention and/or Saturday school	Loss of student privileges	Require partici- pation in community service
All public schools	93	56	29	88	17	62	71	93	34

Level¹
Primary	90	54	24	87	15	53	60	92	27
Middle	98	65	39	94	17	73	88	96	41
High school	97	59	41	88	14	82	91	95	48
Combined	97	45	28	85	35	73	82	90	44

Enrollment size
Less than 300	89	52	24	84	18	61	67	89	31
300–499	92	53	27	89	18	58	65	91	31
500–999	94	57	30	91	17	61	73	96	34
1,000 or more	98	68	46	88	8	78	87	94	46

Urbanicity
City	92	59	34	79	9	58	65	90	38
Urban fringe	90	55	29	88	8	61	72	93	33
Town	99	58	30	97	27	69	79	94	29
Rural	94	53	26	93	28	63	72	94	33

Crime level where students live²
High	93	57	31	76	8	59	72	88	36
Moderate	93	63	36	86	14	63	77	95	41
Low	94	54	26	90	19	62	70	93	32
Mixed	89	53	33	91	15	61	65	93	32

Percent minority enrollment³
Less than 5 percent	95	53	27	94	14	65	76	94	34
5 to 20 percent	95	54	27	92	17	59	70	91	33
20 to 50 percent	92	56	31	90	18	64	73	97	35
50 percent or more	90	59	33	80	14	60	67	90	34

Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch
0–20 percent	92	53	28	87	4	59	71	93	37
21–50 percent	94	55	29	94	18	67	73	94	33
More than 50 percent	93	58	31	85	23	59	69	92	32

Percent of students below 15^th percentile on standardized tests
0–5 percent	91	54	28	88	16	58	66	93	34
6–15 percent	95	56	28	91	17	61	73	94	32
More than 15 percent	92	57	33	85	17	67	73	91	36

Percent of students likely to attend college
0–35 percent	93	56	29	86	23	63	66	92	33
36–60 percent	94	57	30	92	20	62	73	94	31
More than 60 percent	93	55	30	87	9	61	73	93	36

Percent of students who consider academic achievement important
0–25 percent	93	50	27	88	20	67	77	92	39
26–50 percent	93	60	33	86	21	64	71	91	35
51–75 percent	93	53	28	91	21	64	73	95	32
More than 75 percent	93	57	29	88	10	58	67	92	33

Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent	85	57	27	85	13	73	71	90	32
45–55 percent	94	57	30	90	17	62	72	93	33
More than 55 percent	90	49	27	82	19	58	62	92	39

Student-to-teacher ratio⁴
Less than 12 students	96	55	28	88	18	62	71	92	35
12–16 students	93	57	31	90	20	62	70	94	31
More than 16 students	87	56	30	87	7	63	71	93	36

Number of classroom changes⁵
0–3 changes	89	56	27	82	12	48	54	90	27
4–6 changes	92	53	27	90	16	64	71	93	33
More than 6 changes	98	61	37	92	22	72	86	96	42

Regular use of law enforcement⁶
Regular use	96	60	35	88	16	69	76	93	39
No regular use	90	52	25	89	17	57	66	93	30

Number of serious discipline problems⁷
No problems	92	53	27	88	17	60	68	92	32
1 problem	95	61	29	89	14	61	72	95	32
2 problems	95	59	39	94	22	71	80	93	40
3 or more problems	91	65	38	86	9	72	79	96	44

Transfers as a percentage of enrollment⁸
0 to 6 percent	93	51	24	83	9	60	72	91	38
6 to 11 percent	95	57	36	91	17	60	75	90	34
11 to 21 percent	92	56	29	90	18	63	72	95	33
21 percent or more	93	57	29	88	20	64	66	93	32

Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions⁹
No disruptions	93	55	29	88	17	61	70	93	33
Any disruptions	96	65	39	93	15	72	86	96	50

Percent of students absent on a daily basis
0–2 percent	92	55	28	83	15	55	67	90	34
3–5 percent	93	54	27	91	17	61	69	95	31
6–10 percent	94	59	33	87	16	67	76	92	39
More than 10 percent	88	61	42	78	13	61	68	82	40

Prevalence of violent incidents¹⁰
No violent incidents	90	52	22	84	13	47	53	86	24
Any violent incidents	94	57	31	89	17	65	75	94	36
¹ Primary schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not higher than grade 3 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 8. Middle schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not lower than grade 4 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 9. High schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not lower than grade 9 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 12. Combined schools include all other combinations of grades, including K–12 schools.
² Respondents were asked, "How would you describe the crime level in the area(s) in which your students live?" Response options included "high level of crime," "moderate level of crime," "low level of crime," and "students come from areas with very different levels of crime."
³ These estimates exclude data from Tennessee because schools in this state did not report estimates of student race.
⁴ Student-to-teacher ratio was calculated by dividing the total number of students enrolled in the school by the total number of full-time-equivalent teachers and aides. The total number of full-time-equivalent teachers and aides is a combination of the full-time and part-time teachers and aides, including special education teachers and aides, with an adjustment to compensate for the part-time status.
⁵ Respondents were asked, "How many classroom changes do most students make in a typical day?" Responses exclude morning arrival and afternoon departure.
⁶ Respondents were asked, "During the 2003–2004 school year, did you have any sworn law enforcement officers, security guards, or security personnel present at your school on a regular basis?"
⁷ Serious discipline problems include student racial tensions, student bullying, student sexual harassment of other students, student verbal abuse of teachers, widespread disorder in classrooms, student acts of disrespect for teachers, gang activities, and cult or extremist group activities. If a respondent reported that any of these problems occurred daily or weekly in their school, each was counted once in the total number of serious discipline problems.
⁸ Transfers as a percentage of enrollment combines the number of students who were transferred to a school and the number of students who were transferred from a school divided by the total number of students enrolled in the school.
⁹ Schoolwide disruptions include actions that disrupted school activities such as death threats, bomb threats, and chemical, biological, or radiological threats. Respondents were instructed to exclude all fire alarms, including false alarms.
¹⁰ Violent incidents include rape, sexual battery other than rape, physical attack or fight with or without a weapon, threat of physical attack with or without a weapon, and robbery with or without a weapon.
NOTE: Reponses were provided by the principal or the person most knowledgeable about crime and safety issues at the school.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2004.

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