San Francisco investigation finds a records gap around informal student removals

A new San Francisco investigation describes a gap between student removals from class and what appears in official suspension records. Families and researchers interviewed by The San Francisco Standard said students can be sent home early, kept in an office or removed from instruction without a formal record of a suspension.

Three points to know

• The Standard’s October 7 investigation describes families’ reports of informal removals, which it calls “silent suspensions.”
• An SFUSD student-services official told the newspaper that students sent home for disciplinary reasons should be formally suspended, but the district could not state how often informal removals occur because schools maintain separate trackers.
• A Coleman Advocates report cited by the Standard gives a single-school estimate: about 300 students, 3,639 office referrals in one year and roughly 1,800 hours of missed instruction. It is not a districtwide total.

What families and researchers say is missing

The San Francisco Standard’s report describes students being sent home early or kept out of lessons without the paperwork that would show a formal suspension. The newspaper says a district official acknowledged that sending a student home for disciplinary reasons should be counted as a suspension. He also said SFUSD cannot determine how often informal removals happen while schools rely on separate trackers.

The reporting cites a study by local nonprofit Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth. Its estimate covers one unnamed school of roughly 300 students: 3,639 office referrals over a year, which the group translated into about 1,800 hours of missed class time. Because the school is not identified and the figure comes from one site, it should not be read as a measure of all SFUSD schools.

District policy calls for discipline data and regular reporting

SFUSD Board Policy 5144 calls for discipline and behavioral-intervention data to be collected and reviewed, and for the superintendent or a designee to report to the Board twice a year on implementation of the district’s Safe and Supportive Schools policy. The Standard reports that the Board had not received a public update in more than five years.

The question for San Francisco families is whether the district can see when students lose class time, how often it happens and what support follows. The Standard reported that SFUSD plans to provide additional records in response to its public-records request next month. Until then, the available referral estimate remains limited to the single school described by Coleman Advocates.