As schools develop "zero tolerance" disciplinary policies, minor infractions of school rules are criminalized. Additionally, many schools utilize police officers to maintain order in the school so that when infractions occur, students are criminalized for behaviors that in the past would have led to in school discipline. Unfortunately, many of the children impacted by these policies have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse and neglect. The intergenerational poverty data reveals that students experiencing intergenerational poverty are disproportionately represented among children with special education needs and victims of abuse and neglect. As a result, rates of behavioral issues in the classroom places these children at increased risk of entering the juvenile justice system, which often leads to engagement in the adult criminal justice system rather than addressing the educational and behavioral health needs of these students.

Baseline data became available for this indicator with the school year 2016-2017 data, though it is thought to be under-reported (based on SHARP survey data). USBE is working to improve the reliability and validity of this data; as such, reported incident counts are expected to increase to more accurately reflect the rates of behavioral incidents.  Increases in the number of incidents reported are a good thing, as it is not possible to do valid and raliable studies of behavioral incidents and the resulting disciplinary actions that are taken if much of the data in incidents is not available.