Suspension Indicator FAQs

According to the system requirements for the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) local educational agencies (LEAs) do not need to report restraints or seclusions that occur outside of school hours.

Both "in-school" and "out-of-school" suspensions are counted as suspensions in the rate.

DataQuest and the Dashboard fulfill different purposes and sometimes report slightly different metrics. For the case of suspension – DataQuest reports any suspensions regardless of length time.

The Dashboard only counts students who have a cumulative (aggregate total) suspension of at least one full day. Additionally, at the district level, the Dashboard moves students to their “District of Special Education” Accountability.

No. Only students with an aggregate suspension of one full day are counted in the suspension rate numerator.

• If a student is suspended for:
  • 0.5 partial day,
  • 0.3 partial day, and
  • 0.1 partial day

The student is not included in the numerator of the suspension rate because the aggregate suspension total is 0.9 (i.e., less than one full day).

No. The suspension rate is a count of the number of students who have a cumulative (aggregate) suspension of at least one full day during the school year, not a count of total suspensions. A student who is suspended multiple times is only counted as suspended once.

No. The student’s suspension would count in the first school but not at the second. As with all state indicators, the data used for the Dashboard are based on the data generated at each district or school. An LEA or school does not inherit another LEA/school’s data. The only instance data are inherited by another LEA is with the application of the District of Residence rule.

If the suspension has been recorded as the result of an incident within CALPADS, the suspension will be included in the numerator of the suspension rate.

Yes. Since transitional kindergartner is the first year of a two-year kindergarten program, TK students are included within the Dashboard as kindergarteners.

Yes. A student belonging to multiple program student groups will be counted in each program student group. However, the student will be counted once for the ‘All student’ aggregation at the school, LEA, and State level. For example, a student in the Foster and EL program student groups would be counted as suspended (when suspension eligibility criteria are met) for both the Foster and EL student groups, but once at the school, LEA, and state level.