The number of students suspended from public schools increased by nearly 8 percent between 2007 and 2011 — to 73,441 forced timeouts, new data show.
But the numbers varied greatly, depending on the reasons for the punishment.
Suspensions for disorderly or seriously disruptive behavior climbed by only 5 percent over those years — while penalties for dangerous or violent behavior shot up by 17 percent, according to the city’s Independent Budget Office.
Suspensions for insubordination have been all but eliminated, the data showed.
Despite the increases, the length of punishment decreased over the same time period by more than 6 percent — so that the total number of days kids were kept out of school barely budged.
In 2010-11, students served 504,011 days’ worth of suspensions.
Advocates have criticized the city’s disciplinary system in recent years because the data have shown that black and Hispanic kids comprise a large majority of those suspended.
Data reported last year also showed that certain schools had suspended a significant number of kids as young as 5 — which has also elicited criticism.