ISES Discipline Update - Firearm Incidents

DATE:	November 12, 2007 (Email)
TO:	WSLS/ISES Administrators and Assistant Administrators in Districts with Anomalous Data
FROM:	Melissa Aro DPI
SUBJECT:	ISES Discipline Update - Firearm Incidents

As program and IT staff at the DPI reviewed data submitted by your district through the ISES screens, we noted some data that may be anomalous. Our hope is to clarify whether your data entry accurately reflected disciplinary action taken during the 2006-07 school year, and to correct it if it was inaccurately entered.

In the cells used to code student removal types, you entered one or more incidents where students were either placed on in-school suspension, or out-of-school suspension, while connecting that removal to an incident involving a "firearm". The federal Gun Free Schools Act, and state statutes under chapter 120.13, calls for the expulsion of a student found to have been in possession of a firearm on school grounds or at a school sponsored activity. Your entry does not indicate that the suspended student or students were expelled.

We would ask that you review the entry and determine if there was a firearms possession violation involved in the incident for which the student was suspended. Please check the definition of firearm at http://dpi.wi.gov/lbstat/dataincident.html to be sure that you are correctly coding this incident as being related to a firearm and not another type of weapon or toy gun. If there was no firearm involved, this entry should be corrected and the primary or secondary incident for which a firearms violation was entered, should be changed or removed.

If in fact there was a suspension for a firearm possession incident, and the student was not expelled in accord with federal and state requirements, we ask that your district review the guidance provided on compliance with the law (120.13, Wi. Stats, Gun Free Schools Act section of Title IV, non-regulatory guidance) , to ensure you are meeting the requirements.

We are further asking you to contact our help desk to verify either that the data entry in question is accurate, or that your review will result in a change to this entry. You may send that response to the following via the Help Desk Expert Tool, http://dpi.wi.gov/lbstat/helptool.html. We ask that you make this contact to provide verification of the data entered and lock your district by November 16 at 4 PM. If your screens have been locked following final submission, you will need to request that those screens be opened to allow you to make any revisions needed. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

For questions about this information, contact Patricia A. Stutz (608) 267-1289

Last updated on 2/28/2008 7:56:10 AM