STATEWIDE, (WOWO) — Schools in the state suspended students more times in the years after the pandemic than at any point in the prior decade.

That’s according to WFYI, looking at data from the state.

In the last school year, about 72 thousand 700 public school students — about 7 percent of those enrolled — experienced an out-of-school suspension.

It was lower than the peak the previous year, but still higher than pre-pandemic numbers.

The numbers also show black students were suspended more than three times as often as white students, and students with disabilities were removed from school more than twice as often as those without