BCSC seeking more information on state report about teacher injuries

COLUMBUS, Ind. (The Republic) — BCSC administrators say they plan to provide more information regarding a report by the Indiana Department of Education, released last week, that showed that the district had the second most instances state-wide of teachers being injured by students during the 2023-2024 school year.

The report said there were 142 incidents during the last school year of a student injuring a BCSC teacher, accounting for nearly 5% of the total of such instances reported across the state. The figure was second only to Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp., which had 149 incidents.

“BCSC is committed to the safety of its 13,500+ students and staff by fostering a culture of comprehensive incident reporting,” BCSC said in a statement. “In 2023-24, BCSC reported 18 medical claims, while also documenting all information-only incidents. Through continuous improvement processes, we will gather, analyze, and take actions to foster a safe workplace and learning environment for students and staff.”

State law, more specifically IC 20-26-5-42, requires that each public school provide the data to the department of education annually.

The information is submitted through IDOE’s Data Exchange during the final reporting window, which ended on July 15, 2024. The introduction to the report notes that “Indiana Code does not provide IDOE with statutory enforcement authority to ensure reporting compliance.”

The report collected data on three types of incidents, in addition to the total number of unique incidents, which include:

• The number of incidents where a school employee’s injury was required to be reported to the public school’s worker’s compensation carrier
• The number of incidents where a school employee’s injury caused them to miss all or part of one or more work days
• The number of incidents where a school employee’s injury was required to be reported to the public school pursuant to the school’s reporting policy
• The total number of unique employee injury incidents involving one or more of the above incident types.

BCSC’s data entry lists 142 incidents across all of the categories, with the exception of the second column regarding injuries suffered by teachers that caused them to miss work, which only had a hyphen.

The matter was brought up during the school board meeting on Monday night in the public comment portion by Samantha Ison, who is running for the District 7 board seat this cycle.

Board President Nikki Wheeldon, who is running for reelection for District 7, addressed the report at the conclusion of the meeting.

“There have been a lot of conversations since that report came out, and we’re providing the administrative team some time to present that data to us and help us answer some of the questions that we have regarding that information,” Wheeldon said, adding that it could happen as early as the school board meeting on Sept. 23.

This article originally appeared in The Republic.