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Student Exclusions 2000 - 2001

Alternative Education

As shown in Table 8, in 71 percent of all exclusions in the 2000-01 school year, students were provided with alternative education, an increase of one percentage point from the previous year. Sixty-four percent of regular education students excluded from school received alternative education, an increase of three percentage points from the prior year. Federal law requires special education students who are excluded from school to be offered alternative education. Ninety-four percent of the special education students excluded in 2000-01 received alternative education, a decrease of one percentage point from the previous year.

Of the 24 special education students who did not receive alternative education, 13 were reported as having refused or not responding to the offer of alternative education, two were reported as having been incarcerated, two had moved, and for seven students the school chose not to provide it.

Table 8. Alternative Education by Program Status
 1998-981999-002000-01
 #%#%#%
All Students
Alternative education provided 859 65 987 701,156 71
Alternative education not provided 467 35 425 30465 29
Not Reported

0  0  0  
Regular Education Students
Alternative education provided 554 56 630 61787 64
Alternative education not provided 440 44 406 39439 37
Not Reported

0   0 0  
Special Education Students
Alternative education provided 305 92 357 95370 94
Alternative education not provided 27 8 19 524 6
Not reported

0   0  0  
Special Education Referrals
Alternative education provided 0   0  0 
Alternative education not provided 0   0  0 
Not reported 0   0  0 
Reported percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.


Trend data show that students being provided alternative education have steadily increased over the past three years. From the 1998-99 school year to the 2000-01 school year, there was a 25 percent increase in students receiving alternative education. In addition, trend data show over the past three years that more than 80 percent of those students were being provided alternative education services via in-district alternative programs and through home tutoring programs (Table 8).

Of those student exclusion cases where alternative education was not made available, the primary reason over the past three years, schools choosing not to provide it, has remained constant. In addition, the number of exclusions in which students were reported refusing/not responding to offers of alternative education and moving/transferring, has also remained constant over the same time period. In contrast, the number of exclusions that involved the incarceration of students has decreased from 24 reported in the 1998-99 school year to 13 reported in the 2000-01 school year (Table 8).

Table 8. Alternative Education (continued)
 1998-991999-002000-01
 #%#%#%
Types of Alternative Education Provided
Home tutoring221 17 190 14206 13
In-district alternative program489 37 641 45807 50
Alternative program in another district45 3 40 353 3
Private alternative setting99 8 115 888 5
Work/community service setting5 0 1 02 0
Not reported00 000  
Subtotal

859  987 1,156  
Reason Alt. Education Was Not Provided
Student moved/transferred 23 2 21 222 1
Student refused/did not respond 138 10 100 7100 6
Student was incarcerated 24 2 16 113 8
School chose not to provide it 282 21 288 20330 20
Not reported 0  0 16 4
Subtotal

467  425 465  
Totals

1,326  1,412 1,621  
Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.


In the 2000-01 school year, when comparing the results of the distribution of exclusions by length and by race/ethnicity (Tables 6 and 7) to the distribution of exclusion by alternative education provided and by program status, the results are similar. As shown in Table 9, the majority of the students excluded receiving services were excluded between 21 to 40 school days.

Table 9. Alternative Education by Program Status
and by Length of Exclusion, 2001
  Regular Education Students Special Education Students
 #%#%
11-20 school days 85113710
21-40 school days 3324219954
41-179 school days258327119
180 school days (one school year) 628339
Longer than one school year0000
Permanent 506 308
Totals

787 370 
Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.



Exclusions by District

As shown in Table 10, the percent of districts that excluded students has decreased over three years from 43 percent to 34 percent in 2001. Of those school districts that excluded students, the majority had fewer than 10 exclusions.

Table 10. Distribution of School Districts
by Number of Exclusions
 1998-991999-002000-01
Number of Exclusions#%#%#%
0208572236324466
1-3902588246317
4-942123394011
10-1914472134
20-49414162
50-99211021
100 or more 314131
Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.


The number of districts having 10 or more student exclusions has fluctuated. In 1998-99, there were 23 districts reporting, 16 districts in 1999-00 and 24 districts in 2000-01. In 2000-01, more than two-thirds of the districts provided alternative education to more than 50 percent of their students. Most of these districts provided alternative education to the majority of their excluded students (Table 11).

Table 11. Districts with Ten or More Student Exclusions
1999-00
District # Per
1000
students
%
Alt.
Ed.
Springfield 358 14 85
Boston 180 3 55
Worcester 137 5 99
Lawrence 118 9 97
Holyoke 58 8 36
Lowell 40 2 83
Quincy 37 4 46
Chicopee 29 4 17
Revere 25 4 68
Assabet Valley 18 21 44
Peabody 17 3 65
New Bedford 14 1 93
Greenfield 13 5 100
Plymouth 13 1 31
Cambridge 10 1 100
Dennis-Yarmouth10 2 50
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2000-01
District # Per
1000
students
%
Alt.
Ed.
Springfield 471 18 91
Boston 194 3 59
Worcester 106 4 99
Holyoke 87 12 26
Lowell 64 4 91
Lawrence 49 4 88
Revere 40 7 78
Quincy 28 3 57
Ware 24 17 25
Barnstable 21 3 43
Plymouth 20 2 35
Dracut 19 5 74
Chelsea 19 3 63
Middleborough 17 5 100
Cambridge 15 2 100
New Bedford15 1 100
North Attleboro13 3 69
Fitchburg12 2 92
Southern Berkshire11 11 91
Falmouth11 2 82
Chelmsford11 2 73
Gr. Lawrence RVT10 7 50
Althol-Royalston10 5 90
Norton10 3 90
Rates of student exclusions per 1000 students enrolled (as of October 1) are rounded to nearest whole numbers.


Although some districts may have excluded more than 10 students from school, they had fewer than four exclusions per 1000 students enrolled in the district due to their large enrollment. Other districts had fewer than 10 student exclusions, but had four or more exclusions per 1000 students. As illustrated in Table 12, there were 28 districts reporting four or more student exclusions per 1000 students in 2000-01 as compared to 17 districts in school year 1999-00.

Table 12. Districts with Four or More
Student Exclusions per 1000 Students
1999-00
District # Per
1000
students
%
Alt.
Ed.
Assabet Valley 1821 44
Springfield 35814 85
Lawrence 1189 97
Holyoke 588 36
Gr. Lawrence RVT 97 56
So. Shore Charter Sch. 26 50
Greenfield 135 100
Worcester 1375 99
Acad. of Pac. Rim Cht. 15 0
City On A Hill Cht. 15 0
Southern Berkshire 65 100
Chicopee 294 17
Quincy 374 46
Revere 254 68
Concord-Carlisle 44 100
So. Worcester Cty. VT 44 100
Whittier Voc. 54 0
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
  
2000-01
District # Per
1000
students
%
Alt.
Ed.
Springfield 47118 91
Ware 2417 25
Holyoke 8712 26
Southern Berkshire 1111 91
Assabet Valley 78 43
So. Shore Charter Sch. 48 100
Gr. Lawrence RVT 107 50
Revere 407 78
Whittier Voc. 97 11
Pathfinder Voc Tech 46 25
Athol-Royalston 105 90
Chelmsford Alliance/Ed Ch 15 0
City on a Hill Charter 15 0
Clarksburg 15 100
Dracut 195 74
Middleborough175 100
Norfolk County Agr 25 100
North Shore Reg Voc 25 50
Ralph C. Mahar 45 0
Ayer 54 40
Greenfield 94 100
Lawrence 494 88
Lowell 644 91
Monson 64 0
Northeast Metro Voc 54 0
Pioneer Valley Perf Arts 14 0
Wesport 84 38
Worcester 1064 99
Rates of student exclusions per 1000 students enrolled (as of October 1) are rounded to nearest whole numbers.



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