Suspensions are on a steady decline at the Greater Essex County District School Board.
Since 2012, numbers have dropped in both elementary and secondary schools.
Superintendent of Education, Sharon Pike, says staff training, additional programming and alternative discipline options are just a few of the factors coming into play.
Pike says there's a new focus on mental health awareness as well.
"Our suspension rates for elementary and secondary have been decreasing over the years and we've attributed it to several reasons. One is our work in understanding about mental health and mental illness, taking a look at what that means for students individually and how do we need to change and transform what we do with students to individualize."
She says the board is finding suspension isn't always the best option.
"We are seeing results from some of the programs that we're rolling out and really it's about helping kids have strategies because everyone gets angry and so, how do you deal with that anger? What does that look like and feel like? We have to teach our kids that. We're constantly looking for different ways to engage and to help students."
Pike says while numbers are down, there's still lots of work to do.
"We want to keep decreasing. We want to help think about out-of-the-box things to help our kids and using techniques in the school, every school is so different and every child is so different. So what do we do for progressive discipline? Do we jump right to suspension? No, we've got lots of steps to go before we get to a suspension."
The number of expulsions are down at elementary and secondary schools across the public school board as well.