There were nearly 23,000 disciplinary incidents in Idaho schools last academic year.
But the data for which schools had the most incidents — and what those incidents consisted of — is hard to decipher. The state redacts most data on school discipline for student privacy. Only data from 10 of Idaho’s largest school districts is available.
There’s no standardized threshold for what types of incidents lead to an in-school or out-of-school suspension or expulsion in Idaho. That makes comparisons difficult and can leave large districts with too few reported incidents at individual schools for the state to release the data.
Despite the variation, the data can still help districts see disciplinary trends. Coeur d’Alene is using a new tracking system that leaders hope will help identify students who may need interventions and create smoother transitions between schools.
Disciplinary incidents are up from last year
Statewide data shows that there were 22,666 disciplinary incidents during the 2025-26 school year, up from 20,411 the year prior.
Those incidents are split into three categories:
- Expulsions: 105
- Out-of-school suspensions: 10,298
- In-school suspensions: 12,263
There were 156 weapon-related incidents.
- 8 involved a firearm.
- 94 involved a knife or other sharp object.
- 54 involved another item used as a weapon.
About 27% of disciplinary incidents involved students receiving special education services, though those students make up just 12.6% of the overall student population.
However, individual school districts saw much higher percentages. About 43% of disciplinary incidents in Pocatello-Chubbuck involved a student receiving special education services, compared with just 12.3% of the district’s students receiving services.
Courtney Fisher, director of communications for the Pocatello-Chubbuck School District, said the district has broadly seen an increase in behavioral and social-emotional needs among students.
Fisher argued the data is hard to compare across districts because each records incidents differently.
“What ultimately appears in the data is influenced, in part, by how individual districts document incidents in their student information systems,” Fisher wrote to EdNews. “Some districts document nearly every behavioral incident, while others may use different thresholds or practices for what is entered.”
Fisher said no one from Pocatello-Chubbuck was available for an interview on the data. Other districts, including West Ada and Idaho Falls, did not make staff available for interviews.
2025-26 discipline data
| District | Total incidents | Incidents involving students receiving SPED services | Total student % receiving SPED services | Incidents as % of total student enrollment |
| West Ada | 3,305 | 28.9% | 10.7% | 8.8% |
| Coeur d’Alene | 2,450 | 18.6% | 8.1% | 25.5% |
| Boise | 2,272 | 27.9% | 12.5% | 10.7% |
| Vallivue | 1,988 | 25.7% | 13.2% | 18.9% |
| Twin Falls | 1,635 | 20.8% | 10.5% | 18.8% |
| Nampa | 900 | 19.4% | 12.2% | 7.4% |
| Pocatello-Chubbuck | 656 | 43.4% | 12.3% | 5.8% |
| Idaho Falls | 153 | 39.9% | 12.2% | 1.6% |
| Bonneville | 50 | 36% | 11.2% | .4% |
| Jefferson County | 31 | 22.6% | 8.1% | .5% |
| Statewide | 22,666 | 24.4% | 12.6% | 7.3% |
Coeur d’Alene hopes standardization will lead to early intervention
Coeur d’Alene is trying to make its own discipline data more useful. The district, which tracked the highest percentage of incidents among enrolled students, adopted a new tracking system this fall. Leaders hope it will create smoother transitions for students between schools and help identify those who may need interventions.
Starting in 2023, Coeur d’Alene set a goal to have all of the district’s schools become certified in the Marzano High Reliability School model. The model helps set common expectations across all schools, said Mike Nelson, deputy superintendent of instruction.
“If all of our 10 elementary schools are doing their own thing, it affects our middle schools because, naturally, those kids are going to come in with gaps in whatever area it might be — behavioral, academic or the needs,” Nelson said.
As part of the certification goal, the district adopted a new record-keeping model this fall to ensure consistency across buildings when documenting disciplinary issues.
There were no consistent thresholds for what was documented as a minor or major offense across buildings, said Kerri Blankenship, who took over as special education director this fall. The new system allows the district to track incidents throughout the day by teacher and has a section for written responses, allowing staff to add qualitative information.
“We can analyze the data more to lean in and offer supports both on a student level and adult level, and kind of see what we need to do systemically to support kids,” she said.
Leaders hope that if an intervention is working at the elementary school it won’t be lost when they transition to middle school.
These records were being kept before, Nelson said. “It’s just that there wasn’t always this elegant handoff.”
