Almost 2,000 Massachusetts students were excluded from school for 10 or more consecutive days during the 2002-03 school year, the last year for which data is available. This number represents an all-time high since statistics were first calculated.

Almost half of students were excluded for more than 40 days, that is, for over two full months of school days. Over a third of excluded students received no alternative education at all while they were out of school. The chances of a student succeeding in school falls precipitously under these circumstances.

Disturbingly, black and Latino students continued to be excluded disproportionately in 2002-03. Although white students make up the majority of excluded students, only 1.0 white student per thousand is excluded. This compares to a substantially higher rate of 6.1 per thousand African American students and 5.5 per thousand Hispanic students.