Discipline numbers at Columbia schools are down for 2014, 2015

Discipline numbers in Columbia Public Schools are down almost 60 percent in the last year, according to statistics compiled by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“We’ve worked really hard on that,” said communications director Michelle Baumstark.

Student and family advocacy supervisor Carla London sees students in her office who seriously misbehave and tries to work out how to address those incidents.

“One of the things I look for is trends and patterns, what are the things that are coming through my office,” she said. “That allows me to work closely with the superintendent and assistant superintendent to figure out what additional strategies we might be able to roll out to help our students.”

DESE reported that there are 17,267 students enrolled in Columbia schools.

There was a rate of 44 incidents in 2014 and 57 in 2015 at a rate of .30 incidents per 100 students.The numbers are the lowest thatthe district has seen in the last 10years.

For perspective, there were 133 total incidents at a rate of .8 incidents per 100 students in 2013.

To clarify, these are not the total number of incidents as a whole number. They are the rate that they happened out of those 100 students.

There were 66 drug-related incidents in 2005 and nine in 2015, but thenumber of violent acts jumped to 19 in 2015, a huge increase from 2014,when there were only six.

“One of the things we’re looking at is making sure we’re categorizing those incidents the same across buildings to make sure we’re consistent,” she said. “I think we’ve seen an increase in the way that students are choosing to handle their disagreements.”

London said they’ve begun seriously working on using restorative practices to address incidents like violent acts in the hope that it will bring those rates down.

“When you make (students) stop and reflect on their behavior, own their behavior, and then come up with a plan to fix that behavior, a plan for which they will be held accountable, it really does have them not only stop and think before they re-commit, but also says ‘I’m still a part of the community, I have a chance to fix this and move forward’ so that’s been huge,” said London.

Baumstark said school officials have a three-yearplan to address the incidents that’s about a year and a half in.

London said that plan was recently revamped and while many practices such as equity and poverty training for teachers were on a school to school basis, they’ll be moving it district wide in the near future.

The district haspartnered with many community resources to make that happen, she said.

“A lot of money coming in from the (tax)levy will go towardquality enrichment efforts,” said Baumstark.

London said they hope to continue partnerships with community groups like Boys and Girls Club and the Juvenile Justice Center. She also asked that parents help their kids learn discipline as well.

“We love to partner with our families so that we can give kids new tools and new ways to handle conflicts in their buildings,” she said.