Ohio public schools face worsening behavioral issues as expulsion rates rise

Amid mounting concerns about students’ behavioral issues, a new report indicates expulsions due to fighting have nearly doubled in Ohio public schools over the last five years.

Data from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce shows 1,359 expulsions statewide in the 2023-24 academic year – a 66% increase compared to 821 expulsions just five years prior.

The leap in expulsions due to violence coincides with other negative trends in student behavior that have spiraled following COVID-19 pandemic-era school lockdowns: Ohio schools experienced a roughly 25% rate of chronic absenteeism in the last school year.

“School discipline cannot be separated from Ohio’s alarmingly high chronic absenteeism rates,” writes the Children’s Defense Fund in a March 2024 report on Ohio school discipline. 

“Chronic absence is defined as missing 10% of school or more, and can mean as little as missing 2-3 days per month. Out-of-school suspensions, for example, are counted as unexcused absences for students, contributing to the state’s high absenteeism rates.” 

As administrators and teachers struggle to confront negative student behaviors in the classroom, some Ohio lawmakers are taking action to strengthen the enforcement mechanisms available to schools. 

In December, the Ohio legislature passed House Bill 206, which requires state schools to expel students for 180 days, or about one school year, if they are found to pose “imminent and severe endangerment,” such as by bringing a weapon to school, making a bomb threat or causing serious physical harm to another person at school. The bill allows a student’s expulsion to be extended in 90-day increments, with no limit to how many times it can be extended.  

“The goal is not to deprive the child of their education, rather than stop unintentionally readmitting every student who may still pose an imminent threat to a school full of other students and faculty,” said state Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware.  

According to the Ohio Education Association (OEA), the state’s largest teachers’ union, student violence sparks dilemmas for teachers, who dread having to determine the correct course of action. 

“You have teachers that get in trouble for not intervening in one case and then for intervening, but doing it improperly, in another situation,” stated Scott DiMauro, OEA president. 

The OEA has been far less enthusiastic about a different approach some state legislators are taking to improve students’ moral foundations: The union has opposed recently passed legislation known as the Parents’ Bill of Rights, which improves parental oversight of children’s educational experience and includes a requirement for schools to excuse students for religious instruction if requested.