School infractions
down: Why?

The BOE wonders
if behavior is better or if
reporting is worse

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Whether it's a matter of schools doing a better job at keeping student behavior in check or campuses not reporting infractions, education officials say they don't quite know yet why there's been a steady decline in the number of school-related misconduct incidents since 1995.

"What do these (numbers) really mean?" Board of Education member Karen Knudsen asked.

Department of Education statistics presented to the board yesterday show that criminal, departmental and school violations for which a student has been disciplined as well as the number of students who committed those acts have gone down:

A total of 24,403 offenses were committed by 14,466 students during the 1995-96 school year.

The 1996-97 school year showed 22,438 offenses committed by 13,424 students.

During the 1997-98 school year, there were 22,653 offenses with 12,124 perpetrators.

Last school year saw 18,383 offenses by 11,891 students.

The reason offenses outnumber students is because students sometimes were disciplined for more than one violation.

The statistics cover violations of Chapter 19, the department's rules governing student misconduct and the penalties for each set of violations.

Penalties range from a reprimand or warning to detention to suspension to dismissal, depending on the infraction.

In separate tables, the department also tallied the number of incidents considered serious offenses that may not have a perpetrator identified, or involved someone who is not a student.

These statistics also saw a decline.

The Big Island saw the largest decline from a 1995-96 total of 2,227 -- the highest in the state at the time -- to 1,508 last school year. The Leeward Oahu school district, which had the highest number last school year, has stayed at about the 1,900-mark throughout this period.

Francine Grudzias, the Department of Education's systems group director, said the department doesn't quite know the reason behind the steady decline. She said student behavior is being monitored and school enrollment has been declining, but it's not known if those factors are part of the picture.

Knudsen said that, without analysis, "each one of us would reach different conclusions."

Board Chairman Mitsugi Nakashima of Kauai also questioned whether each district defines offenses differently, noting that Kauai is the only school district in which the number of assaults outnumbers disorderly conduct.

Board members also wondered if a 1997 change in whether certain incidents must be reported to police means offenses are being underreported in general.