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Audit finds flaws in Broward school discipline reporting
An audit found a number of shortcomings in the way Broward schools has reported student discipline cases in recent years, raising questions about whether the district properly intervenes with troubled students.
Broward school administrators say they believe students in most cases are still getting the proper discipline, even if the incidents weren’t always properly recorded. However, the internal audit doesn’t list specific schools, so administrators were unable to say how they handled individual incidents.
District administrators say they have improved training and procedures.
“The Teaching and Learning Division recognizes the critical importance of ensuring student discipline is handled with fidelity and accuracy,” Deputy Superintendent Angela Fulton wrote in a Sept. 19 letter to Chief Auditor Dave Rhodes. “We have already begun addressing the concerns identified in the audit. Furthermore, we have identified instances of potential user error and areas requiring process improvement.”
The audit looked at 15 of 87 middle and high schools in the district. The schools reviewed had the highest and lowest percentage of student discipline issues, the audit said.
Among the issues identified:
- Schools routinely failed to complete written behavior contracts with students that were required by policy for certain types of fights and other disturbances. Most schools stated they utilized verbal forms of such contracts.
- Schools also failed to complete certain last chance contracts with students in half the cases reviewed, which would prevent students from being expelled if they repeat the behavior, auditors said.
- Schools didn’t document in attendance records whether students actually received suspensions or alternatives to suspensions in 10% of the cases sampled.
- School administrators failed to properly review more than 3,1000 discipline cases that were referred to them since 2017.
“If the disciplinary action was necessary, but the administrator either did not review the referral or did not process it to completion, there is a risk of a serious violation being unaddressed by the administration,” the audit said.
The audit did show improvement over time. During the first year of the review, 2017-18, administrators failed to review 13% of discipline referrals. That was down to 4% in 2022-23, the most recent year reviewed.
District spokesman John Sullivan said these findings don’t mean students who committed offenses received no discipline.
“It could have been an instance where there was a behavior that occurred, and there were two referrals for the same incident. One was processed and one was left open,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “It could have been the teacher wrote a referral and the administrator also wrote a referral and we don’t want to double consequences for the same behavior, and the process to delete the duplicate referral was not followed.”
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But Sullivan said he can’t address specifically how individual incidents were handled because the audit doesn’t identify details of specific cases or even which schools are involved. He said he didn’t have the list of schools reviewed. Rhodes did not respond to questions from the Sun Sentinel about which schools were audited or why the names weren’t shared with school district staff.
In Fulton’s response to Rhodes, she wrote that the district is “nearing completion of a comprehensive Discipline Management and Documentation Manual” that should address several of the findings.
She said the manual “will provide clear written procedures, timelines, checklists, and required actions for school-based administrators to follow when processing disciplinary incidents.”
Sullivan said the district had made improvements “before we even knew the existence of the audit.”
For example, he said mandatory training on discipline reporting issues has been expanded from a half-day to two full days.
Narnike Pierre-Grant, a parent who leads the district’s Diversity Committee, said the district has added a position that is responsible for monitoring data and compliance. She said her committee will review the audit at its Nov. 7 meeting.
“I’m aware that the district has faced discrepancies in the past,” she said. “However, updated strategies and practices have been implemented by the district.”
The district’s handling and reporting of discipline has been a major issue since the massacre of 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland in 2018. Due to the district’s poor record-keeping, then-Superintendent Robert Runcie was unable to say whether gunman Nikolas Cruz had been assigned to a since disbanded diversion program known as Promise.
Runcie first insisted Cruz never took part, but district officials later determined that he had been assigned to the program, but the district had no records of whether he actually attended the program.
That same year, a series of South Florida Sun Sentinel investigations found major flaws in the way the district reports crime and discipline incidents to the state, making it impossible to know how safe schools were. Stoneman Douglas, for example, reported a number of cases of trespassing, battery, break-ins and robberies on police reports that were never reported on school data reports. Many other schools in Broward and statewide were also failing to report incidents, the investigation found.
The new audit looked at how well the district was doing at reporting this data and actually identified a different problem: overreporting. Under state rules, an incident is supposed to be counted once even if multiple people are involved. So a fight with four students would be reported as one incident. However, some administrators were counting that as four incidents.
Max Schachter, whose son Alex was killed at Stoneman Douglas, has been critical of how the district reported this data. His nonprofit, Safe Schools for Alex, created a school safety dashboard to help parents find this data.
“The accuracy of a school district’s safety data is a direct measure of their attitude toward safety and security,” he said. “Based on the most recent Student Discipline Process Audit, Broward Schools has improved most of their metrics. I have confidence Superintendent (Howard) Hepburn will continue focusing on this issue to make Broward Schools the safest in Florida.”
Today in History: October 29, Houston Texans take a knee
Today is Tuesday, Oct. 29, the 303rd day of 2024. There are 63 days left in the year.
Today in history:On Oct. 29, 2017, all but 10 members of the Houston Texans took a knee during the national anthem, reacting to a remark from team owner Bob McNair to other NFL owners that “we can’t have the inmates running the prison.”
Also on this date:In 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh, the English courtier, military adventurer and poet, was executed in London for treason.
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In 1940, a blindfolded Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson drew the first number — 158 — from a glass bowl in America’s first peacetime military draft.
In 1960, a chartered plane carrying the California Polytechnic State University football team crashed on takeoff from Toledo, Ohio, killing 22 of the 48 people on board.
In 1987, following the confirmation defeat of Robert H. Bork to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, President Ronald Reagan announced his next choice of Douglas H. Ginsburg, a nomination that fell apart over revelations of Ginsburg’s previous marijuana use.
In 1998, Sen. John Glenn, at age 77, returned to space aboard the shuttle Discovery, retracing the trail he had blazed as the first American to orbit the Earth 36 years earlier.
In 2012, Superstorm Sandy slammed ashore in New Jersey and slowly marched inland, devastating coastal communities and causing widespread power outages; the storm and its aftermath were blamed for at least 182 deaths in the U.S.
In 2015, China announced plans to abolish its one-child policy, allowing all families to have two children for the first time in more than 35 years.
In 2018, a Boeing jet operated by the Indonesian airline Lion Air crashed in the Java Sea minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
In 2022, more than 150 people were killed and dozens more injured in South Korea after being crushed by a large crowd pushing forward on a narrow street during Halloween festivities in Seoul.
Today’s Birthdays:- Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is 86.
- Actor Richard Dreyfuss is 77.
- Actor Kate Jackson is 76.
- Hockey Hall of Famer Denis Potvin is 71.
- Actor Dan Castellaneta (TV: “The Simpsons”) is 67.
- Actor Joely Fisher is 57.
- Actor Rufus Sewell is 57.
- Actor Winona Ryder is 53.
- Actor Tracee Ellis Ross is 52.
- Actor Gabrielle Union is 52.
- Olympic gold medal bobsledder Vonetta Flowers is 51.
- Actor Ben Foster is 44.
- Olympic gold medal swimmer Amanda Beard is 43.
Beef and brewski blowout (and R&B acts) at 5th annual Beer-B-Q bash
This is “Small Bites,” a South Florida Sun Sentinel feature with tiny tidbits on the food and beverage scene — because we know that sometimes you don’t want a long article. You want a little news brief instead, an amuse bouche of information, if you will. Enjoy!
WHAT: Meaty meals, malt and music — what more could you want? And it can all be found at Lauderhill’s fifth annual Beer-B-Q on 38th Ave on Saturday, Nov. 2.
Expect food trucks, kiosks from city bars, craft beer stations and a barbecue contest, as well as live entertainment from R&B acts Jon B, Michel’le and Ronnie VOP. Dancehall singer Shenseea will be the headliner, and singer/actor/TV personality Ray J will host.
“We’re excited to have this level of talent perform at this year’s Beer-B-Q,” says Sean Henderson, executive director of the Lauderhill Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and the city’s deputy finance director. “The response from the public has been momentous.”
WHEN: 6 p.m.-midnight Saturday, Nov. 2
WHERE: Commercial, Arts & Entertainment District, 1803 NW 38th Ave., Lauderhill
COST: General admission is free; VIP tickets are $75 and include two cocktails, premium stage viewing, one T-shirt (while supplies last)
INFORMATION: 954-730-3041; lauderhillcra-fl.gov/events
Authentic VisionsBeer-B-Q will include a barbecue contest in addition to food trucks, cocktail bars, craft beer stations and live music from R&B/dancehall acts. (Authentic Visions/Courtesy) Authentic VisionsAt this year’s Beer-B-Q, dancehall singer Shenseea will be the headliner and singer/actor/TV personality Ray J will host the live entertainment show, which will also include performances from Jon B, Michel’le and Ronnie VOP. (Authentic Visions/Courtesy)Morning Update: South Florida’s top stories for Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024
Here are the top stories for Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. Get the weather forecast for today here.
SUBSCRIBE NOW: Get our free Morning Update email. Sign up here.
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