Truancy and tardiness were the top two reasons for student discipline in the 2024-25 school year within Naperville School District 203, according to a recently released annual report that delved into various infractions and the corrective measures used.
In addition to analyzing the district’s disciplinary data, the report outlined some of the steps that are being taken to work with students in the hopes of preventing inappropriate behavior from cropping up in the first place.
A big picture look at the numbers from the past school year
A presentation delivered at Naperville 203’s board of education meeting Monday, Sept. 8, analyzed some of the causes behind the different student behavior infractions that led to discipline.
Class and school truancy was the leading cause of student discipline this past school year, according to district data. There were a total of 2,109 incidents, accounting for 33.2% of the total. Tardiness was close behind, with 1,888 incidents, or 29.7% of the total.
Cell phone violations were third on the list, coming in at a distant 538 incidents, or 8.5% of the total.
The report also looked into Naperville 203’s most common resolutions, with lunch detentions (49.3%) being the most frequently used measure to correct student discipline. Other measures included conferences (20.9%), detentions outside school hours (20.9%) and suspensions (6%).
Throughout the recent lengthy discussion, several Naperville 203 officials — administrators and board members alike — emphasized the number of students involved in infractions requiring discipline was relatively small.
“When I did some of the math on this, we are not talking about lots of students that have behavioral issues,” board member Marc Willensky said. “I don’t want to have the community think that we have a lot of students that are not behaving properly. An overwhelming majority of them are behaving correctly.”
At the high school level, 5.4% of Naperville 203’s high schoolers had 7 or more documented behavior referrals this past school year, the report indicated.
Other District 203 disciplinary data also shared in report
Naperville 203 administrators provided various pieces of data in the look-back report, including the demographic breakout of students involved in behavior-related incidents this past school year.
According to the report, 65.7% of the high schoolers involved in the incidents were male, 33.4% were female and 0.9% were non-binary. In terms of ethnicity, 45.5% of the students were white, with various other groups comprising slivers of the remaining 54.5%.
Board member Holly Blastic weighed in on demographic data concerning exclusionary discipline — a category that includes such measures as in-school and out-of-school suspensions.
Data continues to reveal disparities between different racial and ethnic groups in some of the granular analysis.
“My biggest concern, and I know this has been a stubborn number and a frustrating point, previous to this time, is the disparities in our subgroups and exclusionary discipline,” Blastic said.
In response to the disparities, Mark Cohen, deputy superintendent for high schools, indicated 3.8% of Naperville 203’s student population was subject to exclusionary discipline this past school year.
“You start getting down to very individualized statistics,” Cohen said. “It’s difficult to draw broad, generalizations on trends from a very small pool of data.”
At a broader level, Rakeda Leaks, executive director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, said various districtwide initiatives have been taking place, including the creation of workgroups.
Those staff-level meetings, she said, are a means “to get some learning around implicit bias and personal responsibility and impacting change, regarding our disciplinary outcomes and understanding one’s role in how we respond to those behaviors … and how we support students.”
Leaks added, “There is still room for growth.”
Fostering a student’s sense of belonging as an antidote
Throughout the recent report, Leaks and other Naperville 203 officials touched on the concept of creating environments that heighten students’ senses of belonging within their respective school.
By plugging students in and meeting them where they are at, administrators said they are hopeful the strides will curtail the student infractions and subsequent disciplinary responses.
“Targeted efforts, such as student advisory council, inclusive curriculum and climate-building strategies are helping students feel more connected and, in turn, should lead to improved attendance and reduced behavioral concerns,” Leaks said.
“While progress has been made,” she added, “the district remains committed to strengthening students’ sense of belonging as a foundation for improved learning, healthier behavior and greater connectedness to Naperville 203.”
Board members asked where Naperville 203 stacks up against other comparable benchmark districts in Illinois. To that end, Superintendent Dan Bridges said it is difficult to draw comparisons.
“There’s actually not a lot of districts that provide this type of report to the board of education,” Bridges said. “There are some that have and moved away from it.”
Naperville 203’s board policy annually requires the submission of a student discipline report.
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