Fewer students at Tulsa Public Schools are being suspended.
The district reports it placed 7% of students on suspensions last year. So far this year, that’s down to 4.1%. The district's goal for the year is not to exceed 6.4%.
TPS Deputy Superintendent Paula Shannon said suspensions are down even more dramatically looking at figures from four years ago.
"We’ve had 10,000 fewer suspensions than we did this point in time in 2015," Shannon said.
Superintendent Deborah Gist said problematic behavior is not being ignored, but her preference and district policy is keeping students in school whenever possible.
"But it’s about helping to bring student behavior along, not about just stopping something. That used to be the typical practice for challenging behavior problems," Gist said.
Suspensions generally aren’t considered in TPS until students’ behavior reaches the second level of four tiers of offenses.
