Wake County classrooms are seeing a lot more students sent home. In 2024‑25, the district issued 13,473 short‑term suspensions, a year‑over‑year increase that leaves the system about 35% above pre‑pandemic levels. The district also recorded 15 long‑term suspensions last school year, and school leaders say those numbers have sped up plans to bolster counselors, restorative practices and targeted coaching to keep students in classrooms and learning.
Those figures come from district discipline counts reviewed by the News & Observer, which reported that Wake schools logged 47,075 classroom infractions and 1,929 bathroom incidents in 2024‑25. The paper says the 13,473 short‑term suspensions were a 5.6% increase from the prior year and a 35% rise since the 2018‑19 school year.
Local advocates and district researchers say the spike is not evenly distributed. Reporting and district studies have highlighted persistent disparities, particularly for Black students and students with disabilities, that staff say the system must address through different supports and training. WRAL has detailed the district's efforts to revamp special‑education staffing and supports in hopes of reducing these inequities.
The district says it is leaning on several tactics to bring removals down: increased behavioral‑health staffing, classroom‑based supports, restorative practices and targeted coaching for principals and teachers. District research and guidance, including a Bright Spots report, point to those strategies as correlated with drops in incidents at some schools.
That local uptick runs counter to statewide trends. The N.C. Department of Public Instruction reported an overall decline in short‑term suspensions across North Carolina in 2024‑25, even as some districts saw increases, according to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. The contrast underscores that Wake's rise is a district‑level problem rather than part of a universal statewide surge.
Forest Pines Drive Elementary's turnaround
One of the district's bright‑spot schools, Forest Pines Drive Elementary, reported incidents dropping from 856 last school year to 220 through Dec. 31, a decline administrators attribute to coaching from the Office of School Climate. The district's Bright Spots report credits on‑site coaching and targeted behavior supports with much of the improvement.
State policy and limits on long suspensions
Recent state law changes have tightened when districts can use long‑term suspensions and expulsions, a legal backdrop that pushes local leaders to seek alternatives to extended removals. The N.C. General Assembly's enacted language (SL 2025‑25/HB 40) narrows long‑term suspension use to serious safety threats and instructs governing bodies to minimize long‑term removals, creating added pressure to scale non‑exclusionary supports, according to the N.C. General Assembly.
District officials emphasize that most Wake students are never suspended even as they work to reduce removals for the small number who are. Paul Walker told the News & Observer that roughly 96% of students avoided suspension last year and that about 80% of suspended students were suspended only once. Administrators say they will keep expanding counseling, restorative practices and targeted coaching to push those rates down.
