COEUR d'ALENE — More than 200 out-of-school suspensions were issued during the first semester of instruction in the Coeur d'Alene School District.

The data, which was provided to the district's board of trustees earlier this month, shows there were 268 suspensions given to students during the fall semester of the 2015-16 school year. Superintendent Matt Handelman told The Press district officials will begin providing board members with regular district-wide discipline reports to comply with state statute.

"This is a new reporting process that is evolving," Handelman said. "We are working to both ensure the accuracy of the information we compile and to complete internal checks on the consistency of how our schools are documenting and entering disciplinary actions into our Skyward student management system."

Lake City High School, which has an estimated enrollment of 1,522 students, issued 65 out-of-school suspensions during the fall semester. Approximately 35 percent of the suspensions were given because a student was caught using or in possession of drugs, alcohol, or tobacco.

Its crosstown counterpart, Coeur d'Alene High School, issued 16 out-of-school suspensions during the same period of time. The estimated enrollment at Coeur d'Alene High School is 1,451 students.

Approximately 40 percent of the suspensions at Coeur d'Alene High School were issued for possession or use of drugs or alcohol.

Handelman said that, because each school has a unique culture and approach to student discipline, extreme variations across the school system are not unexpected.

"Some of our schools have special programs for students with severe behaviors, some have different intervention and discipline plans," Handelman said. "Administrators take into consideration the context of the offense and not just the offense itself when determining a consequence."

Borah Elementary School issued 33 out-of-school suspensions, the majority of which were given for fighting. There were 26 suspensions at Bryan Elementary, 18 of which were issued for physically aggressive behavior.

Since out-of-school suspensions are only one component of a much larger discipline picture, Handelman said district officials and board members are planning to hold a workshop to dig deeper into the issue. This workshop, he added, will allow board members to learn about intervention techniques used with students before using suspension, as well as other disciplinary measures like detention and in-school suspension.

"We look forward to continued discussion and review of multiple pieces of student discipline data with the school board that will ultimately help us to ensure fairness across the system, and it is premature to take this one snapshot of out-of-school suspensions and draw conclusions about total disciplinary methods and actions at the schools," Handelman said.