School Safety & Discipline
in North Carolina

In recent years, teachers, parents, and students have expressed growing alarm over school safety and discipline, as behavioral incidents and crimes in schools have increased. Among other reasons, disciplinary incidents are concerning because they result in lost instructional time.

In North Carolina, school discipline policies and practices are largely determined by local boards of education and therefore vary across the state. The NC Department of Public Instruction collects data on student behaviors leading to short- and long-term suspensions. In 2023–24, 99% of all reported incidents resulted from unacceptable behavior and were not a crime or violent offense.

Trends in Student Suspensions

In 2023–24, 26% of reported behavior incidents were assigned a short-term suspension. Most of these resulted from a single incident, with less than one percent of short-term suspensions resulting from recurring or multiple incidents. Defiant Behavior accounted for 46% of short-term suspensions, while Assaults or Threats accounted for 28% of all short-term suspensions.

Figure 1: Number of Unacceptable Behavior Short-Term Suspensions, by Incident Category (2023–24)

Middle schools have the highest rate of suspensions, with an average of 286 short-term suspensions per 1,000 students, compared to 176 short-term suspensions per 1,000 students in high schools. Additionally, Black male students have the highest rate of suspensions with 20% receiving a suspension in 2023–24. Black male students accounted for 29% of all students suspended.

School-Based Crime and Violence

In 2023–24, 26% of reported behavior incidents were assigned a short-term suspension. Most of these resulted from a single incident, with less than one percent of short-term suspensions resulting from recurring or multiple incidents. Defiant Behavior accounted for 46% of short-term suspensions, while Assaults or Threats accounted for 28% of all short-term suspensions.

Figure 2: Acts of Crime and Violence, by Category and School Level (2023–24)

State Efforts on School Safety

In an effort to ensure all North Carolina public schools and students are safe, North Carolina established two ongoing grant programs that provide state funding to public school units to support the hiring of new School Resource Officers and the purchasing of physical equipment to make schools more secure.