City school suspensions fell by almost 20 percent during the first half of the current school year, according to the Department of Education — which critics say is due to the softened approach to discipline.
Overall, suspensions under the de Blasio administration have plunged by 50 percent, the DOE said.
The department has urged principals to pivot away from suspensions towards less punitive measures including “restorative justice” circles and mediation.
Backers argue that suspensions have historically been issued out of proportion to the system’s racial demographics due to implicit biases on the part of teachers and administrators.
They also contend that suspensions trigger negative academic outcomes and should only be used as a disciplinary last resort.
Objectors to that approach argue that the drop in suspensions has fomented rising classroom disorder and made it challenging for attentive students to learn in peace.
The DOE noted Thursday that emergency services transports for city kids with emotional and psychological conditions decreased by 13.1 percent and that school crime was down in the first three months of 2020 compared to the same period last year.
“We made historic investments in the social and emotional well-being of our students, which is more important now than ever,” schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said in a statement. “Decreasing suspensions demonstrate our schools have laid the groundwork for maintaining supportive and safe environments for students remotely, and our young people have the tools they need to deal with the incredible hardship they may be experiencing.”
The controversy over school discipline bubbled up earlier this year when parents at a Queens middle school complained that their kids were victimized by classroom aggressors who were never suspended out of school.
MS 158 Marie Curie in Bayside became a flashpoint after the videotaped beating of a student and a separate classroom sexual assault last December.
Both offenders were eventually arrested after parents called police, but were never suspended.
The DOE later said they flooded the school with additional supports after the controversy.
While kids are no longer in school buildings, the department stressed Thursday that they are continuing to offer mediation and restorative justice to student remotely should conflicts still arise.