In early October, Marion County announced that 23 students were expelled from its schools in the first month of classes. Since then, 14 more students have been expelled. And while that may sound like a lot, School Board Chair Sarah James offered some context to the number.
“It is standard and on track with our expulsions year over year. They ebb and flow, but it's pretty standard. There's nothing exceptional about this number for the first two and a half months,” she said.
A Marion County School Board meeting Tuesday provided an update on previously reported county expulsion numbers.
John Kerley, director of student discipline for Marion County public schools, agrees with James’ sentiment.
“When you have a school district that has 46,000 students, that first number of 23 is 0.05% of the total students enrolled,” he said.
Kerley, a former Marion County principal, has learned that there are misconceptions about the process and punishment of expulsions in his county. Due to state statutes, Marion County cannot permanently remove a student from its school system. So, Kerley and Marion County treat expulsions as “super suspensions,” said Kerley, prioritizing rehabilitation over extreme action.
“Every student that is expelled has an opportunity for early reentry,” Kerley said. “They're eligible for early reentry after two full quarters. If a student was expelled in August, they finish out the first quarter, and they spend the rest of the second quarter and the third quarter expelled. Then they can apply for early reentry, and they could, if accepted, return to their base school in that same school year.”
Kerley said the reentry programs, particularly Marion County’s Bridgeway Academy — the former Marion Technical Institute — are extremely effective. Kerley said there is a more than a 90% reentry rate of expelled students from across the county in recent years.
James and Kerley said the most prevalent reason students are being expelled from school is drugs, followed by fighting, threats of mass harm and bringing a weapon to campus.
“If you bring drugs to school, and you get caught, you're going to get expelled,” James said. “And as a parent of Marion County public school students myself, I would not want a child who brings drugs to school to go to school with them.”
Kerley explained that there are several ways students can get expelled when it comes to drugs. If you are caught with drugs or under the influence, you are given a first infraction and immediately offered a diversion program called supportive enforcement.
“Supportive enforcement is a six-week online program that the students have to participate in and complete all the online modules. And then they also have to provide a negative drug screening, which is random, at the very end of the program,” Kerley said. “If they meet all those criteria, they never leave their base school.”
According to Kerley, if a student is caught with drugs, they are immediately placed on a 10-day suspension and the school submits an alternative placement recommendation to his office.
“Our school board is big into diversion programs,” he said. “We've seen a lot of success with them, but also, law enforcement sees a huge correlation between diversion and not reoffending.”
Limiting repeat offenders is one of the primary goals for Kerley and his discipline team. He said he believes Marion County’s programs are perfect for that.
“Typically, if you're arrested at home, those law enforcement officers are not offering any type of diversion program. You're immediately being arrested, incarcerated or given a notice to appear,” he said. “That recidivism rate is 20-something percent. The students who are arrested on campus and put into a diversion program, that recidivism rate plummets to less than 4%.”
But it isn’t just the kids being punished; Kerley said parents are psychologically rocked after their child is expelled, and the two main concerns parents of expelled children may have about the diversion programs are monetary cost and the students their child will be attending school with.
Because Bridgeway Academy provides transportation and an alternate program can be delivered virtually from home, Kerley said families face no financial burden.
But what about the students who attend in-person programs such as Bridgeway?
“A lot of parents say, ‘I don't want my child to go to that school with those kids.’ And I try to say, as nicely as I can, your child violated the student code of conduct at the highest level. Your kid got caught with drugs. You might need to be more focused on getting them the help they need so that this doesn't turn into a bigger problem later,” Kerley said. “Their employer one day isn't going to care whether they came to school or work rather high or under the influence. They're just gonna say, 'Hit the road.’”
Kerley said he recently had a parent distraught that her child was being expelled for a second drug offense. She couldn’t stand that her child had to move to a different school with other kids under expulsion.
“I looked at the student’s behavioral record,” Kerley said. “He has 57 referrals. He’s had a felony arrest.”
The student had been recommended for alternative placement twice but had never been required to serve.
“And I said to her, ‘Listen, I'm not saying anything to you that I wouldn't say to my own kids or my own family: I believe he needs to serve this consequence because he hasn't served any consequences so far, and all he's doing is reoffending. We need to try something different.’ And I think that parents sometimes struggle with that,” Kerley said.
Kerley said he sees greater success from students who take responsibility for their actions and focus on getting their life back in order.
“I've had parents come back and say, ‘Wow, this turned out to be a very good situation for my student. I believe they learned a lot about themselves and learning right from wrong,’” he said.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Kerley and James believe the number of children expelled will continue to trend down compared to recent years, in part to Marion County’s continued rehabilitation efforts.
“Based on the numbers that are already on that calendar,” Kerley said, “we are six or seven less than the 2025-2026 school year as far as expulsions.”