North Carolina's Public Schools Show Strong Levels of Safety

Demonstrating strong levels of safety, North Carolina public school units (PSUs) reported that nearly 80% of schools had five or fewer acts of reportable criminal offenses (reportable offenses), with 44% of schools having zero such acts, in the 2024-25 academic year.

According to the annual report on discipline, alternative learning and dropout data, formerly titled the Consolidated Data Report, presented to the State Board of Education (SBE) today, PSUs reported decreases in reportable offenses, suspensions and dropouts in 2024-25 compared to the prior two years. The report also shows that fewer than 1% of 1.5 million students, only 9,966 students or approximately 0.66%, committed a reportable offense. Fewer than 13% of all students received any type of reportable disciplinary consequence (suspension, alternative placement for disciplinary reasons, expulsion) for inappropriate behavior.

Throughout the report, the groups with the highest rates of reportable offenses and suspensions were the same: male students, Black students, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. However, these groups showed decreases in most of these areas compared to the last two years.

Middle grades (6,7,8) have higher rates than most other grade levels for suspensions (in-school, short and long term). Grade 9 remains the primary risk point, with higher rates of in-school suspension, long-term suspension, reportable offenses and dropouts.

"Students and educators deserve safe places to teach, learn and grow," North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Maurice "Mo" Green said. "While there is still work to be done to address instances of reportable criminal offenses, it is good to know that the vast majority of our schools experience a minimal amount of such acts and that more than 99% of our public school students are not committing these acts. It is also encouraging to see the downward trend of not only in those offenses, but also declines in suspensions and dropouts, as we know how critical being in school is to student success."

The newly titled report on discipline, alternative learning and dropout data accurately describes the report's contents and findings. It includes executive summaries and key highlights while full tables and charts are still included. Although there are 10-year computations, focus should be paid to the years following the COVID-19 pandemic.

"While the report includes 10-year trends, it's critical to separate data before and after the COVID-19 pandemic due to its impacts on the education landscape," North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) Chief Accountability Officer Dr. Michael Maher said. "This year's report provides evidence of continued improvements in school safety across North Carolina's public schools and points to areas for further study to strengthen our understanding of student support across the academic continuum."

Based on the data trends and in alignment with Achieving Educational Excellence, the strategic plan for North Carolina's public schools to be the best in the nation by 2030, NCDPI highlighted the following actions and recommendations:

• Establish a targeted middle-to-high school transition initiative (Pillar 4, Focus 2, Action 5)
• Expand annual reporting to include advanced analyses and continued monitoring (Pillar 4, Focus 2, Action 4)
• Continue training for PSUs on discipline, alternative learning and dropout data

The annual report on discipline, alternative learning and dropout data is due to the General Assembly annually by March 15 per §115C-12(21) and §115C-12(27).

Visit dpi.nc.gov for more information on the annual report. Watch the presentation and discussion on YouTube.

School Incidents

Decreasing for the third consecutive academic year, 11,470 acts of the sixteen reportable offenses committed by student and non-student offenders were reported in the 2024-25 year. 78.2% of public schools had between zero and five reportable offenses, an improvement of 0.9% compared to the number of schools reporting incidents from the previous academic year.

Overall, instances of the seven reportable crimes decreased by 6.6% to 11,168 in 2024-25 from the 2023-24 academic year. Instances of the nine violent crimes were rare with a 0.196 rate per 1,000.

Notably, approximately 67% of all reportable offenses were possession of a controlled substance (62%) and possession of an alcoholic beverage (4.8%). Possession of a controlled substance increased 1.5% and was the highest reportable offense by more than three times in middle school and seven times in high school over the next highest offense. Per G.S. §90-89 through 90-94, a controlled substance includes marijuana, heroin, LSD, methamphetamine, cocaine or any other drug listed in Schedules I-VI of the North Carolina Controlled Substances Act.

Student Discipline

Rates of in-school suspension decreased by 10.8% to 156.53 in-school suspensions per 1,000 students enrolled in 2024-25 compared to the 2023-24 academic year. Across all grades, 241,492 in school suspensions were given to 124,334 students, or approximately 8.1% of the students in North Carolina. Notably, 80.5% of public schools reported in-school suspension rates below the state rate. Middle school has the highest rate of grade levels at 308.46 per 1,000 students.

For the third straight year, alternative learning placements as disciplinary action have decreased. There were 2,994 such placements in 2024-25. Students in grades 12, 9 and 8 spent, on average, more days out of school when compared to other grade levels.

Across all grades, 233,877 short-term out of school suspensions were given to 123,111 students, or about 8% percent of students in 2024-25. These short-term suspensions have continued to decrease over the past three years to a rate of 145.11 per 1,000. Mirroring in-school suspension, middle grades had the highest rate and number for two years in a row. The largest decreases in in-school suspension were in grades 12, 5 and 9.

Long-term out of school suspensions decreased from the previous academic year to 684 occurrences, a rate of 44.33 per 100,000. Expulsions remain extremely rare at 34 in the 2024-25 academic year.

Dropouts

High school dropout rates continue to decline with grade 9 remaining as the highest risk for dropping out. There were 10,478 total dropouts in grades 1-13 during the 2024-25 school year, representing a 1.2% decrease compared to 2023-24. Of those, there were 2,461 (23.5%) in grades 1-8 and 8,017 (76.5%) in grades 9-13. The top three reasons cited for dropout are attendance, unknown and moved/school status unknown.

Corporal Punishment

For the seventh consecutive academic year, zero uses of corporal punishment were reported across the state.

Related Topics: