An audit of New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) oversight of student suspensions released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found many students receiving multiple disciplinary actions, low attendance at required alternative education sites during suspensions, and a need for NYCPS to improve the administration of student interventions to better support students facing disciplinary actions.

“My auditors found concerning trends and deficiencies that indicate the need for stronger monitoring and improvements by New York City Public Schools to better support at-risk students,” DiNapoli said. “I urge school officials to act on our recommendations to keep these students from falling through the cracks.”

NYCPS, the nation’s largest public school system, serves more than 900,000 students across over 1,800 schools in grades K–12 throughout the five boroughs. The audit looked at four school years (2019–20 through 2022–23), during which 54,565 students were involved in 88,356 incidents that resulted in a disciplinary response. Of these, 16,605 students (30%) were disciplined two or more times. The majority of these students – 92% – were disciplined between two and five times, while the rest were disciplined six or more times.

Of the students who were disciplined two or more times, 6,735 (41%) had no records indicating they received any support or intervention, as required. Multiple disciplinary responses with little to no corresponding support and intervention may worsen student behavior rather than improve it.

Students who received superintendent suspensions for more serious behavioral issues were absent nearly half of the days they were assigned to receive instruction at alternate locations, as required. For the 11,878 students in grades 3 through 12, with a total of 15,100 superintendent suspensions, the absenteeism rate averaged 54% for their suspension days. Missing this many instruction days may cause students to fall behind academically, struggle to catch up, and potentially drop out of school.

Auditors also noted disparities in suspension length across racial/ethnic groups, with the most frequent infractions with Black students receiving more disciplinary days, on average, compared with the other ethnic groups. For example, for intimidating and bullying behavior, Black and Hispanic students were disciplined an average of 5.75 and 4.66 days, respectively, compared with 3.88 days for white students and 3.61 days for Asian students.

The audit also identified:

• A failure to ensure all school staff completed required behavioral supports training.
• In 2019, NYCPS implemented a policy capping school suspensions at 20 days, except when longer suspensions are required by law or when the infraction falls under Level 5 (Seriously Dangerous or Violent Behavior). However, 113 students received suspensions lasting more than 20 days for Level 4 infractions (Aggressive or Injurious/Harmful Behavior).
• Regulations require parents to receive written notification of a principal or superintendent suspension within 24 hours. Many of the 134 suspension notifications provided for a sample of 59 students were missing information such as the date of the decision to suspend, the suspension start date, and the date the notification was issued to parents. Lacking this information, there is no assurance that notifications to parents were made on time.

DiNapoli’s audit recommended NYCPS:

• Ensure appropriate supports and interventions are provided consistently to all students, especially those at high risk of being disciplined multiple times.
• Monitor the length of suspensions assessed to ensure consistency across all racial/ethnic groups.
• Ensure all staff (including non-instructional staff) attend all mandated trainings, including those that address biases.
• Monitor the use of suspensions that exceed 20 days by identifying behaviors that lead to lengthy suspensions.
• Monitor students’ attendance at alternative learning locations during superintendent suspensions and assess reasons for and take actions to address low attendance.
• Ensure compliance with parental notification and conference/hearing requirements.

NYCPS generally disagreed with several audit findings, noting that three of the four academic years examined were during periods of COVID-related disruptions, but generally agreed with the report’s recommendations. The department’s full response is included in the audit.

Audit

New York City Public Schools: Oversight of Student Suspensions