Costs to discipline DISD students over $11 million, study finds
Dallas ISD spent at least $11.3 million to remove students from their home campuses about 25,000 times last school year for disciplinary reasons, a study released today found. The study was conducted by Texas Appleseed, a public interest and law center in Austin that has spoken out against disparities in student discipline in public schools. Recent reports have shown that black students and those in special education are more likely to be kicked out of their classroom for disciplinary reasons at the discretion of school administrators. The "cost of discipline" report released today looks at costs associated with out-of-school suspension, disciplinary alternative education programs and county-operated juvenile justice alternative education programs. Dallas ISD officials hadn't seen the report before today. "We appreciate their interest in this topic, and we'll take a look at their findings," DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander said. Other findings in the study (found here) include:*Annual cost per seat in DISD's disciplinary alternative education program for elementary students was more than $57,000. *The overwhelming majority of student disciplinary referrals were for "low-level misbehaviors" for