Augusta County Schools saw a 25 percent increase in short-term suspensions last year compared with the 2015-16 school year, mirroring a statewide trend.

An update to the Legal Aid Justice Center’s Suspended Progress report reveals that during the 2015-16 school year, Virginia schools issued more than 131,500 out-of-school suspensions to more than 70,000 students, marking an increase in the Commonwealth’s suspension rate after four years of a downward trend.

In 2015-16 Augusta County had 731 short-term suspensions and three long-term suspensions. Last year, that short-term suspension number rose to 969, with long-term staying the same.

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Virginia law defines short-term suspension, long-term suspension, and expulsion in Code of Virginia § 22.1-276.01.

Short-term suspension is defined as disciplinary action which mandates that a student is not permitted to attend school for up to 10 days.

Long-term suspension is defined as disciplinary action which mandates that a student is not permitted to attend school for more than 10 school days but fewer than 365 calendar days.

Expulsion is defined as disciplinary action imposed by a school board which mandates that a student is not permitted to attend school within the school division and is ineligible for readmission for 365 calendar days after the date of the expulsion.

The breakdown of suspensions by student group closely mirrors that of the student population in Augusta County. Eighty-eight percent of the student population is white, and 86 percent of the students suspended last year were white. Less than 3 percent of the student population is black, and 4 percent of students suspended were black.

In Waynesboro, however, the breakdown of suspensions by student group does not represent the student population as well as Augusta County. Fifty-seven percent of the student population in Waynesboro Schools is white, but 47 percent of students suspended last year were white. Compared to a student population of 16 percent, black students represented 27 percent of the students suspended.

A request for information on total suspensions for Waynesboro Schools in 2015-16 and 2016-17 had not been received as of Friday afternoon.

Staunton had a similar breakdown of suspensions by student group as Waynesboro. Sixty-six percent of students in Staunton Schools are white, but white students represented 40 percent of total suspensions in 2016-17. Whereas, 15 percent of the student population is black and 36 percent of students suspended last year were black.

Staunton also has not responded to a request for information on total number of suspensions for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school year.

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