Escambia County School District

Schools across the country will be taking a new look at their discipline policies after an announcement by the Obama administration on Wednesday. 

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the Supportive School Discipline Initiative...a sweeping set of new school discipline guidelines that the administration hopes will end many schools' zero-tolerance policies that he says has created a school to prison pipeline. The secretary also talked about studies where African-American students were found to be more harshly and frequently disciplined than white students. 

New figures from the U.S. Department of Education show graduation rates are up in Escambia County, but the district remains behind its Panhandle neighbors and the state as a whole.

Escambia County’s graduation rate for the 2012-13 school year was 64%, up from 62% the previous term. Escambia still falls short of the 75% statewide graduation rate, along with Santa Rosa County’s 79% and Okaloosa County’s 83% mark.

The federal high school graduation rate includes standard four-year diplomas but excludes regular and adult GEDs and special diplomas.

The Escambia County School District has set up a new hotline for reporting fraud and waste. Previously, callers had to provide their name and employee serial number to file a report. The old line went directly to the assistant superintendent of human resource services.