About 15 percent of the Texas seventh- through 12th-grade students tracked during the study were suspended or expelled at least 11 times and nearly half of those ended up in the juvenile justice system. Most students who experienced multiple suspensions or expulsions do not graduate, according to the study by the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the Public Policy Research Institute of Texas A&M University.

"The findings in this report should prompt policymakers in Texas and in states everywhere to ask this question: 'Is our (public) school discipline system getting the desired results?' " said Michael Thompson of the justice center, one of the report's co-authors.

The findings suggest an urgent need to stop the criminalization of students for simply misbehaving, said Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, longtime chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, and Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson.

Students actually tracked

The report is considered a groundbreaking study because it relies on the actual tracking of students over a six-year period instead of a sample.

The study found the following:

· For the nearly 60 percent formally disciplined, the actions ranged from in-school suspension for as brief as one class period to being expelled.

· More than 30 percent of students received out-of-school suspension.

· Three percent of the disciplinary actions resulted from conduct for which the state requires removal from class — such as aggravated assault or using a firearm on school property — while 97 percent were at the discretion of the school district for school conduct code violations.

· African-American students and special education students, particularly those categorized as emotionally disturbed, were more likely to face disciplinary action.

"We see so many kids being removed from the classrooms for disciplinary reasons, often repeatedly, demonstrating that we're not getting the desired changes in behavior," Thompson said. "When we remove kids from the classroom, we see an increased likelihood in that student repeating a grade, dropping out or not graduating. We also see an increased likelihood of juvenile justice involvement."

'Large bureaucracy'

Whitmire complained of "large inner-city school districts creating a large bureaucracy to deal with oftentimes just dumb teenage behavior that can be corrected short of making it a crime."

Whitmire said the report confirms his concern over the continual growth in criminalizing classroom behavior.

"We all want safe schools, an orderly environment and for teachers to be left alone," said Whitmire, the senior member of the Texas Senate. "The nonsense begins with overusing the issuance of Class C misdemeanor tickets and the tremendous growth of school district police departments."

A mistaken impression?

Suzanne Marchman, spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, said the agency had not yet evaluated the study but that the finding that six in 10 students were disciplined did not seem outrageous given the large variation between districts in enforcing local conduct codes.

Marchman added that the agency is concerned the study creates an impression that students might be committing serious crimes. She said most students are disciplined for discretionary infractions that could be as minor as a dress code issue.

"It looks like the majority of Texas students are wayward students and just because a student is tardy to class or wears a tank top ..... doesn't mean they're going to be bad kids."

Curtis Clay, deputy director of the Texas School Safety Center based at Texas State University, had not seen the study but said that the percentage of students found to have been disciplined sounded much higher than he would have expected.

The report will set the stage for extensive policy discussions in Texas and the nation, Jefferson said Monday.

"School teachers and school administrators supervise troubled youth every day, and act compassionately in doing so," he said. "Yet, as this report demonstrates, discipline is uneven across school district lines and even among schools in the same districts."

San Antonio Express-News staff writer Pierre Bertrand contributed to this report.

gscharrer@express-news.net