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Table 13.  Percentage of public elementary schools reporting that removals for at least one year, transfers, or suspensions for less than one year were available as disciplinary actions, by selected school characteristics: 1999–2000


School characteristic Removal or transfer for at least 1 year   Suspension or removal for less than 1 year
Removal with no continuing school services Transfer to specialized school1 Transfer to another regular school Transfer to school-
provided tutoring/
at-home instruction
  Out of school suspension   In-school suspension
  No curriculum/ services provided Curriculum/ services provided   No curriculum/ services provided Curriculum/ services provided
All public elementary schools 67 72 67 75   69 87   53 84
 
Enrollment size
Less than 300 73 68 65 79   77 91   54 81
300–499 70 71 68 77   71 87   52 84
500–999 62 77 68 72   65 85   53 86
1,000 or more34 63 76 63   46 77   43 84
 
Urbanicity
City 59 74 74 65   63 79   49 82
Urban fringe 62 79 75 83   67 88   55 85
Town 85 69 69 81   78 92   57 88
Rural 73 63 53 73   74 91   52 83
 
Crime level where students
live2
High 68 83 76 55   60 80   36 83
Moderate 65 74 67 74   69 86   55 85
Low 69 69 65 78   71 88   55 85
Mixed 50 77 76 77   65 88   47 81
 
Percent minority enrollment2
0–5 percent 74 67 57 81   68 93   60 90
6–20 percent 73 71 67 81   76 86   49 81
21–50 percent 62 79 75 78   73 89   57 85
More than 50 percent 59 74 74 64   62 80   44 80
 
Percent of students eligible for
free/reduced-price lunch
0–20 percent 69 77 69 88   73 89   57 87
21–50 percent 67 68 64 74   70 90   53 85
More than 50 percent 65 72 70 69   66 83   50 82
 
Percent of students below 15th
percentile on standardized tests
0–5 percent 68 66 62 76   70 88   51 82
6–15 percent 67 73 68 80   69 90   56 88
More than 15 percent 66 77 72 69   68 83   51 82
 
Percent of students likely to
attend college
0–35 percent 73 78 69 70   71 87   57 87
36–60 percent 68 67 62 78   71 84   53 83
More than 60 percent 60 72 73 76   65 90   48 83
 
Percent of students who consider
academic achievement important
0–25 percent 62 70 61 78   63 81   60 93
26–50 percent 81 68 65 73   77 89   52 85
51–75 percent 62 74 68 72   67 88   54 84
More than 75 percent 63 73 69 78   67 86   51 82
 
Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent 79 85 78 82   74 92   58 87
45–55 percent 66 70 65 74   68 87   52 85
More than 55 percent 59 72 69 72   73 84   50 76
 
Student/teacher ratio2,3
Less than 12 67 73 60 77   70 87   51 84
12–16 68 74 66 75   68 85   51 82
More than 16 65 68 76 73   69 89   54 87
 
Number of classroom changes2
0–3 changes 69 76 71 75   71 86   57 79
4–6 changes 64 70 68 75   69 86   49 85
More than 6 changes 71 66 57 75   64 94   49 96
 
Use of paid law enforcement4
Regular use 68 70 64 68   64 85   49 84
No regular use 66 73 69 79   72 88   55 84
 
Number of serious discipline
problems5
No problems 68 74 70 76   72 88   56 84
1 problem 63 63 59 78   67 88   49 80
2 problems 75 70 70 77   63 83   38 85
3 or more problems 58 79 65 64   58 80   47 91
 
Transfers as percentage of
enrollment2,6
0 to 6 percent 66 83 74 81   71 92   57 86
6 to 11 percent 70 69 67 77   72 89   56 82
11 to 21 percent 67 64 59 71   69 87   52 83
21 percent or more 67 75 71 75   67 83   50 85
 
Prevalence of schoolwide
disruptions2,7
No disruptions 67 72 67 75   69 87   52 85
Any disruptions 66 61 70 62   68 85   47 74
 
Percent of students absent
without excuses
None 68 73 70 79   73 94   60 87
1–2 percent 71 69 63 76   69 90   51 84
3–5 percent 64 72 70 74   71 80   47 81
6–10 percent 57 82 75 62   59 75   53 87
More than 10 percent 57 77 70 73   65 81   67 89
 
Prevalence of violent
incidents2,8
No violent incidents 63 73 66 74   67 87   57 81
Any violent incidents 70 72 69 76   70 87   50 86
1 Specialized school was defined for respondents as, "a school that is specifically for students who were referred for disciplinary reasons. The school may also have students who were referred for other reasons. The school may be at the same location as your school."
2 Some schools are omitted from these categories because of missing data on their school characteristics. For this reason, the detailed results do not sum to the totals. See appendix J of 2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) Detailed Data Documentation (NCES 2004-307) for further information.
3 Student/teacher ratio was calculated by dividing the total number of students enrolled in the school by the total number of full-time equivalent teachers. The total number of full-time equivalent teachers is a combination of the full-time and part-time teachers, including special education teachers, with an adjustment to compensate for the part-time status.
4 Schools were included as regularly using paid law enforcement if they reported the use of paid law enforcement during any of the following times: at any time during school hours, while students were arriving or leaving, at selected school activities (e.g., athletic and social events, open houses, science fairs), or at any other time that the respondent specified.
5 Serious discipline problems is a count of discipline problems reported by principals. These discipline problems include student racial tensions, student bullying, student verbal abuse of teachers, widespread disorder in classrooms, and student acts of disrespect for teachers. If a principal 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. Undesirable gang activities and undesirable cult or extremist group activities were also counted once as a problem if the principal reported that these events occurred at all in their school.
6 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.
7 Schoolwide disruptions include actions that disrupted school activities such as bomb threats or anthrax threats. Respondents were instructed to exclude all fire alarms, including false alarms.
8 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: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. "At school/at your school" was defined for respondents as including activities happening in school buildings, on school grounds, on school buses, and at places that are holding school-sponsored events or activities. Respondents were instructed to, unless the survey specified otherwise, only respond for those times that were during normal school hours or when school activities/events were in session. A gang was defined for respondents as, "an ongoing loosely organized association of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, that has a common name, signs, symbols or colors, whose members engage, either individually or collectively, in violent or other forms of illegal behavior." Elementary 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.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000.