Fayette County Public Schools is committed to providing educational excellence for every

student, and ensuring equity in inclusion, access, process and outcome. To accomplish this
mission, we have taken timely, deliberate, and unified action to eliminate exclusionary practices
and address historical and social barriers that prevent our students from reaching their highest
potential.

Addressing disparities in student discipline has been a clearly defined, publicly acknowledged
and systematically embraced objective for the Fayette County Public Schools since the release
of the Blueprint for Student Success in June of 2016.

There has been no attempt to hide the persistent disparities in disciplinary outcomes for
students of color in the Fayette County Public Schools. On the contrary, we have put measures
in place to address the issues, and actively monitor trends in our data to determine if the actions
taken are producing results.

Additionally, the assertion that Fayette County Public Schools spends more on law enforcement
than it does on mental health and student support services combined is absolutely untrue. In
fact, the district’s current budget includes $5.7 million for law enforcement and $18.7 million for
mental health and student support services.

It is unfortunate that the Grassroots Law Project, the NAACP of Lexington and the Institute for
Compassion in Justice have attempted to paint a narrative that the Fayette County Public
Schools are at odds with advocates for social justice.

FCPS fully acknowledges and denounces the systemic racism and implicit bias that has gnawed
at the soul of our nation since 1619. It will take time, consistent effort and an honest reckoning
with insitutionalized discrimination that goes beyond the walls of the schoolhouse to yield the
true change our children deserve.

We must note that in their most recent press release, it appears portions of the student
discipline data provided through an open records request were misinterpreted. The totals given
in their release about the number of suspensions and expulsions are incorrect, based on that
misinterpretation.

Additionally, the press release compares spending from all funding sources on law enforcement
with just one funding source for mental health and student support services, which is not an
accurate reflection of the true investment made in providing mental health resources and
student support services for students.

Finally, the call to eliminate police officers from district elementary and middle schools is in
direct odds with the 2019 School Safety and Resiliency Act, in which the Kentucky Legislature
approved KRS 158.4414, requiring that there be one school resource officer to serve each
school campus. Sadly, the fatal school shooting in Knoxville, Tennessee just eight days ago
underscores the importance of having more than a single officer on our high school campuses.
That said, Fayette County Public Schools takes full responsibility for creating welcoming,
inclusive and equitable school environments for all of our students. Toward that end, we own
our data and we are committed to addressing the root causes of disparate outcomes.

To account for differences in enrollment from year to year, FCPS uses a nationally-accepted
measure called “risk ratio” to assess the disproportionality in suspension data. The calculation
tells us how much more likely students of different races are to be suspended compared with
their white peers.

During the 2016-17 school year, the risk ratio for African-American students at all grade levels in
FCPS was 4.01, which means they were 4.01 times more likely to be suspended than white
students. During the 18-19 school year, that number was down to 3.38. The risk ratio for
Hispanic students in FCPS in the 2016-17 school year was 1.42. In 2018-19, the ratio was down
to 1.31.

While we are disappointed that disproportionalities remain, and discouraged that the decrease
is not more dramatic, this slow, downward trend indicates that we are putting forth efforts to
make change that is systematic. Data from the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years are
incomparable due to the pandemic.

Beginning with the 2016-17 school year, FCPS required all schools to implement Positive
Behavior Interventions and Supports – known as PBIS – which emphasizes data analysis, clear
behavior expectations, and the development of environments conducive to quality teaching and
learning.

We have made significant investments in professional learning and coaching to track the fidelity
of implementation in every school, and analyze results each month with teams of district and
school leaders.

Seven PBIS coaches were hired at the district level to work with schools and ensure consistent
adoption and provide embedded professional learning. Annual evaluations of fidelity against
national benchmarks show that since the 2017-18 school year, the number of schools effectively
using PBIS structures grew from eight to 57 in 2019-20.

Other actions have included changes to the Student Code of Conduct that promote supportive
consequences in lieu of those that require removal from class and new attendance policies
allowing students to make up work missed during unexcused absences.

During the 2018-19 school year, Fayette County Public Schools began requiring all employees
to complete annual training in cultural competence and racial bias. But that was just a first step.
More than 80 professional learning opportunities are now offered by the district; covering a wide
range of topics including “Cultural Competence and Racial Bias”, “Implicit Bias for Law
Enforcement”, “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning”, “Addressing Race Related
Trauma in Schools”, “Facilitating Courageous Conversations about Race While Becoming an
Anti-Racist Multi-Cultural Organization”, “Pushback: A Panel Discussion as follow-up to our
study of ‘Push Out: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools’”, “Enhancing Equity in School
Discipline”, “Equity for English Language Learners”, “Educating Boys of Color Strategies to
Address Equity”, “Increasing District Academic Success for Educating Boys of Color”, and
“Effective Leadership Development Program Strategies for Boys of Color”. Additionally, during
this school year alone, there have been a total of 4,453 participants in professional learning
around understanding best discipline practices in schools.

In 2020-21, the district has further expanded its professional development offering in implicit
bias by partnering with the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in Ohio.
Employees now have the opportunity to participate in four different learning modules that
progressively deepen reflection and awareness in addition to the ones already offered:
“Understanding Implicit Bias”, “Real World Implications”, “Understanding Your Own Biases”, and
“Mitigating Unwanted Biases”. To date, 16,913 modules have been completed.

A fuller picture can be seen in the exponential increase in employees receiving specialized
training to support trauma informed practice, increase cultural responsiveness, and address
implicit bias:
● In 2017-18, a total of 556 participants received training in the areas of PBIS, culturally
responsive teaching and learning, youth mental health first aid, and trauma informed
care.
● In 2018-19, topics expanded to include social and emotional learning, and 2,155
participants attended training sessions.
● In 2019-20, opportunities were added for training in restorative practice and implicit bias
and the number of participants reached 2,168.
● In 2020-21, the impact of community and gun violence on youth was added, and the
total number of participants expanded to 3,302.

Since the adoption of the school safety tax in 2018, a total of 57 additional mental health
professionals have been hired and placed in our schools to provide increased services and
support for students and augment existing student support professionals. This investment has
brought the overall ratio of students to student support professionals down to 220 to 1 at the
high school level (including program schools), 226 to 1 at the middle school level, and 244 to 1
at the elementary level.

In addition to staffing, we established the nation’s first mental health referral pathway,
implemented a social-emotional learning curriculum that spans preschool to high school,
partnered with Lexington PD to adopt “Handle with Care” alerts, and contracted to monitor
social media and Chromebook activity for suicidal ideation, self-harm and threats.
During that same time period, FCPS has added 27 officers in our schools for a total of 59
school-based officers, three lieutenants and a chief. Our Fayette County Public Schools Police
Department is unique in the nation because it takes community policing to another level -- our
officers are part of our schools. They are coaches, mentors, and counselors who receive
training on implicit bias training, youth mental health first aid, and working with children in school
settings.

In contrast to the incomplete data provided by Grassroots Law Project, the NAACP of Lexington
and the Institute for Compassion in Justice, here is the actual FCPS spending on law
enforcement, student support and mental health services:

FY 2017:

● $2.5 million on law enforcement

● $13.4 million on the delivery of mental health services

FY 2018:

● $2.7 million on law enforcement

● $13.6 million on the delivery of mental health services

FY 2019:

● $3.3 million on law enforcement

● $15 million on the delivery of mental health services

FY 2020:

● $4.4 million on law enforcement

● $18.3 million on the delivery of mental health services

FY 2021:

● $3.8 million YTD on law enforcement

● $12.3 million YTD on the delivery of mental health services