Understanding Reports in simpldiscipline

When you look at reports in simpldiscipline, you’ll see numbers for incidents and numbers for behavior/action codes. These numbers are not the same thing. This article explains why, and how to read reports correctly.

What’s an Incident?

An incident is the “event” that gets written up.

• Example: A fight in the cafeteria = 1 incident.

• Even if 6 students are in the fight, it’s still 1 incident.

What’s a Behavior or Action Code?

A behavior or action code is tied to each student in the incident.

• Each student gets their own code that shows what they did.

  • Fighting

  • Tardy 

  • Phone 

  • OSS / ISS

• Example: If 6 students are in that same fight, all 6 get the code 009 – Fighting.

  • That’s 6 behavior codes.

Why the Numbers Don’t Match

• Incidents count the event.

• Behavior/action codes count the students involved.

Examples:

• 1 fight with 6 students = 1 incident, 6 behavior codes.

• 1 phone violation with 4 students = 1 incident, 4 behavior codes.

• 1 tardy write-up with 3 students = 1 incident, 3 behavior codes.
  
  

✅ Incidents = events

✅ Behavior/action codes = students

Why the Graph and Download Don’t Match

When you run a report, you might see:

• The graph shows one number.

• The raw data download shows a bigger number.

Here’s why:

The Graph (Incidents - except the behavior and action summary reports)

• The graph is counting the number of incidents.

• Example: If there were 315 incidents this year, the graph shows 315.

The Raw Data (Students in Incidents)

• The raw data download gives you a line for every student involved in those incidents.

• Example:

  • Incident #1 = 1 fight with 6 students → 6 lines in the download.

  • Incident #2 = 1 phone violation with 3 students → 3 lines in the download.
    
    

So 315 incidents might equal 400+ lines in the raw data, because many incidents have more than one student.

✅ Graph = number of events (incidents)

✅ Download = every student tied to those events

Understanding How Reports Count Data

Different reports in simpldiscipline count things differently.

Behavior Code Summary & Action Code Summary

• Always counted per student.

• Example: If 1 incident involves 4 students with code 180 – Tardy, the report shows 4 tardies.

• Same for action codes: each student with an action (like OSS) is counted separately.

Incident-Based Reports (like Incidents per School)

• Counted per incident.

• Example: If there are 315 incidents at a school, the graph shows 315 — even if some incidents had multiple students.

Raw Data Downloads

• Always shows the exact details that make up the graph.

• Each line = one student tied to one incident.

• Example:

  • 1 incident with 6 students = 6 lines.

  • 1 incident with 1 student = 1 line.

That’s why downloads almost always have more lines than the graph.

Quick Tips for Reading Reports

• Want incident counts? Look at the Incident ID column → remove duplicates to match the graph.

• Want student counts? Leave the raw data as-is (or de-duplicate based on Student ID if you only want unique students).

• Remember:

  • Graphs = big picture numbers.

  • Raw data = the details behind those numbers.
    
    

✅ Behavior/action summaries = per student

✅ Incident summaries = per incident

✅ Raw data = always the full detail

Filtering an Incident Report by Behavior Codes

When you filter an incident-based report (like Incidents per School) by a behavior code, the system will only show incidents where at least one student has that behavior code.

Important Details

• The report is still per incident, not per student.

• If multiple students are in the same incident, but only one student has the behavior code you filtered for, the entire incident will still show up.

• The graph will count that incident once, even if more than one student had the same behavior code.

Example

• You filter for 180 – Tardy.

• There are 10 incidents where students were marked tardy.

• Some incidents had 1 tardy student, some had 3.

Result:

• The graph shows 10 incidents.

• The raw data download shows all the students who were involved in those 10 incidents.

Key Takeaway

• Filtering by behavior code narrows the incident list to only incidents that contain that behavior.

• The graph = number of incidents, even if multiple students in those incidents had that code.

• The raw data = every student in those incidents, not just the ones with that behavior.

✅ If you want to know how many (or which) students had that behavior code, use the Behavior Code Summary report.

✅ If you want to know how many incidents included that behavior, use the Incident Report filtered by behavior code.