Massachusetts Public School Student Discipline Records from 2013

Student Discipline data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) details disciplinary actions for offenses from 2013 onward. The dataset is reported by school districts through the School Safety Discipline Report (SSDR) and includes offense types, student group demographics, and disciplinary outcomes. Data is published on the educationtocareer.data.mass.gov platform via Socrata.

Use Cases

• Analyzing disparities in suspension rates (IN_SUSP_PCT, OUT_SUSP_PCT) across student demographic groups (STU_GRP).
• Tracking trends over school years (SY) in specific offense categories (OFFENSE) like bullying or weapon possession.
• Comparing disciplinary outcomes, such as arrests (ARREST_PCT) or alternative placements (ALT_SETTING_PCT), between districts (DIST_NAME).
• Modeling the relationship between school-level enrollment (STU_CNT) and the count of disciplinary incidents (STU_DISCIPL_CNT).

Strengths

• Provides longitudinal data starting from the 2013 school year.
• Includes 19 specific offense categories, such as Bullying, Physical Attack, and Weapon on school premises.
• Contains detailed outcome percentages for suspensions, expulsions (EXP_PCT), arrests, and law enforcement referrals (LAWENF_REF_PCT).

Limitations

• Offense coding standards changed in 2018, complicating direct year-over-year comparisons prior to that date.
• Row count and total dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The definition for economic disadvantage (Low Income vs. Economically Disadvantaged) changed across reporting years.

Provenance

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE)

Collection Method

Reported by school districts via the School Safety Discipline Report (SSDR).

Time Range

From 2013 onward

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-17 19:46:43; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Public schools in Massachusetts, USA