expulsion

"In considering different strategies for promoting productive and safe school environments, it can be difficult to know what works and what doesn’t. In particular, longstanding debates about zero tolerance policies leave many people confused about the bas ...

All children and youth have a human right to quality public education in safe and supportive learning environments. Such an education provides a foundation for access to higher education, meaningful employment and full participation in society. Although a ...

Excerpt from website Continuing the efforts of the Federal Supportive School Discipline Initiative, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education* are pleased to announce the next event in the 2014 Supportive School Discipline (SSD) Webinar Series. T ...

On August 25th, 2015 at the SFUSD Board of Education (BOE) meeting, Kevin Truitt, Chief of Student, Family & Community Support, along with Thomas Graven, Executive Director, and a number of other staff from the department, walked BOE commissioners and par ...

Infographic

On October 23, 2007, a 14-year-old boy at the Kennedy Middle School in Springfield, Massachusetts, was arrested after he refused to walk with a teacher to her office and instead returned to his classroom. According to the police report, he yelled at the t ...

Excerpt: School-based police officers, known as school resource officers (SROs), have become a common and growing presence in schools across the nation. The presence of law enforcement in school, while intended to increase school safety, has also been ...

THE CODE OF CONDUCT is based upon the laws, rules, regulations, and policies that seek to allow access to education for all while protecting the due process rights of the individual. Discipline, as defined by the Code, must have the qualities of understan ...

The Council of State Governments (CSG) released a groundbreaking report, Breaking Schools’ Rules, in 2011, which documented the negative impacts that suspension or expulsion from Texas public schools have on students. The CSG report revealed a large “huma ...

There has been a growing interest in placing sworn law enforcement officers in schools as School Resource Officers (SROs) as a means of improving school safety and improving relations between police officers and youth. However, when this project began in ...

Research suggests that approximately 25% of American children will experience at least one traumatic event by the age of 16. A child's reactions to trauma can interfere considerably with learning and/or behavior at school. However, schools also serve as a ...

This guide was written to educate policymakers about the scope and impact of childhood trauma, to offer effective solutions that can be implemented with the support of informed public policy, and to provide information about additional resources. The Nati ...

Juvenile courts nationwide handle cases referred by schools for truancy or behavioral incidents. Since 2012, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) have trained jurisdictions on strategies and policies to reduce the number of re ...

This webinar will focus on strategies to support policymakers, school and district administrators, educators and other adults in the school building in improving school climate and minimizing the use of suspensions and expulsions. Recommendations focus on ...

This manual summarizes the major activities of the Connecticut School-Based Diversion Initiative (SBDI); an initiative funded by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The manual is intended to aid communities in developing their ...

High rates of suspensions and expulsions are daunting problems affecting many California schools. In part, these rates are the result of Zero Tolerance policies enacted in the early 1990s to improve school safety. Although Zero Tolerance policies original ...

In the past decade, there has been a growing convergence between schools and legal systems. The school to prison pipeline refers to this growing pattern of tracking students out of educational institutions, primarily via “zero tolerance” policies, and , d ...

This report examines how the involvement of the criminal justice system in school discipline policies and practices causes deprivations of human rights for children in four key areas: the right to be free from discrimination, the right to education, the r ...

Disparities in the use of school discipline by race, gender, and sexual orientation have been well-documented and continue to place large numbers of students at risk for short- and long-term negative outcomes. In order to improve the state of our knowledg ...

While the extent of and reasons for disciplinary disparities have been well documented for at least the last 40 years, a number of inaccurate assumptions and myths remain popular but lack research support. This fact sheet describes many of the most common ...

"This report aims to make transparent the rates at which school discipline practices and policies impact Black students in every K-12 public school district in 13 Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nor ...

Throughout the 1990s, the rise of zero-tolerance school discipline policies resulted in the widespread adoption of strict and mandatory responses for a large range of misbehavior in school. An unintended consequence of these policies and practices were yo ...

In the past decade, there has been a growing convergence between schools and legal systems. The school to prison pipeline refers to this growing pattern of tracking students out of educational institutions, primarily via ―zero tolerance‖ policies, and , d ...

Fueled by increasingly punitive approaches to student behavior such as “zero tolerance policies,” the past 20 years have seen an expansion in the presence of law enforcement, including school resource officers (SROs), in schools. According to the U.S. Dep ...

In 2005-2006, juvenile justice professionals in Pennsylvania’s 67 counties were assessed to determine their current aftercare practices. As a result of this assessment, this Toolkit was written in 2006 to address one of their main areas of concern: helpin ...

Discipline in schools, when appropriately used, can help to create structure and establish rules for a well-functioning classroom and school. All students should feel safe, and have a positive environment in which to learn. The underlying empirical data s ...

Disciplining students, particularly those with chronic or serious behavior problems, is a longstanding challenge for educators. They must balance the needs of the school community and those of the individual student. At the heart of this challenge is the ...

In the nine years since Congress reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), startling growth has occurred in what is often described as the “School-to-Prison Pipeline”1 – the use of educational p ...

During the 2013-2014 academic year, California schools issued more suspensions than diplomas. Among suspended and expelled students, glaring racial disparities are apparent. Overwhelming numbers of students who have been suspended or expelled from school ...

AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) believe that all schools should be warm, welcoming and productive places for children to learn and for teachers to teach. We believe that exclusionary discipline – suspend ...

In the name of public safety, Black children in Oakland are being arrested at vastly disproportionate rates. This derails their opportunities for educational success while failing to ensure our children’s safety. From Report Card to Criminal Record: The I ...

Developing positive school climates and improving school discipline policies and practices are critical steps to raising academic achievement and supporting student success. However, there is no single formula for doing so. Rather, the growing body of res ...

In the wake of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, communities, advocates, and policymakers across the country are proposing and already implementing different ways to address gun violence in our society—such as passing new gun control me ...

The federal guidance released in January by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education on school discipline policies was necessary to advise school districts of their responsibilities under the Civil Rights Act to protect children from discrimination. ...

Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan issued the first ever national guidelines for school discipline in public schools, in an effort to keep more students in class and reduce racial disparities in punishment. The fed ...

Our nation’s schools should be safe havens for teaching and learning free of crime and violence. Any instance of crime or violence at school not only affects the individuals involved but also may disrupt the educational process and affect bystanders, the ...

The zero tolerance policies that were adopted by many local and state education agencies in the 1990s had the unintended effect of unnecessarily introducing low-risk youth to the juvenile justice system for disruptive behaviors that are very typical of ad ...

The most disadvantaged, troubled students in the South and the nation attend schools in the juvenile justice systems. These children, mostly teenagers, usually are behind in school, possess substantial learning disabilities, exhibit recognizable behavior ...

As the education of our children – our nation’s future – and the school-justice connection has increasingly captured public attention, the sunshine of increased graduation rates has brought into sharp focus the shadow of the so-called school-to-prison pip ...

Excerpt from website As a result of the growing body of evidence demonstrating the alarming relationship between widespread school suspensions and expulsions and involvement in the justice system, today’s schools, courts, and communities require new ...

As a result of the growing body of evidence demonstrating the alarming relationship between widespread school suspensions and expulsions and involvement in the justice system, today’s schools, courts, and communities require new thinking about how to posi ...

The last twenty years have seen a remarkable increase in the criminalization of American schools and students. What officially began in 1994 with the signing of the federal Gun Free School Zone’s Act (GFSA), has escalated from a series of reforms intende ...

There has been a growing interest in placing sworn police officers in schools as SROs to improve school safety. However, when this project began in May 2000, little was known about SRO programs (appendix A identifies the principal published and selected u ...

Since first identified by the Children's Defense Fund nearly 40 years ago, researchers have consistently documented African American disproportionality in a range of exclusionary discipline practices including office disciplinary referrals, suspensions, e ...

Our children attend Chicago Public Schools, and in 2003 we came together —African-American and Latino parents and grandparents—around shared experiences and concerns. Our schools have one of the highest rates of suspension in the nation, and African-Ameri ...

For schools and districts across the U.S., family engagement (1) is rapidly shifting from a low-priority recommendation to an integral part of education reform efforts. Family engagement has long been enshrined in policy at the federal level through Title ...

Exert: "As state policymakers strive to provide students with equal educational opportunities, they must look beyond test scores and graduation rates to assess the school environment more broadly, and particularly the role of discipline policies and p ...

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports is an evidence-based way for schools to improve student behavior and establish a positive school culture - and when discipline improves, grades and test scores improve as well. PBIS pulls together research-ba ...

Historically, most educators have recognized two primary aims of school discipline: (a) managing student behavior, relying primarily on the use of teacher‐centered techniques for preventing and correcting misbehavior and (b) developing self‐discipline, co ...

The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center has released a new report "Realizing the Full Vision of School Discipline Reform: A Framework for Statewide Change," which documents how five states have reduced their reliance on suspensions while mov ...

This chapter will address the excessive use of suspensions and other disciplinary actions against Black males who are disengaged from school. Academically disengaged students often come to school late, miss assignments, have difficulty understanding schoo ...

Many schools across the United States have enacted zero tolerance philosophy in response to perceived increases in violence and drugs in schools. It is believed that aggressive and unwavering punishment of many school infractions, including relatively min ...

WHEREAS: San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) believes strongly in creating a District-wide, positive, relationship-based culture that is supportive of all members of the SFUSD community and has been a statewide leader in initiating policies to s ...

"Oakland unified is no different than many urban districts struggling with the repercussions of zero-tolerance policies and related teacher and staff practices that for decades have failed our students of color. The complex web of policies, practices and ...

Humans are born to learn, but we don’t learn in isolation. We learn based on positive relationships and interactions with peers and in environments like schools that foster opportunities for students and staff to learn and grow together. Educators recogni ...

In February of 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio launched the Leadership Team on School Climate and Discipline—a one-year task force charged with developing policy recommendations to enhance the well-being and safety of students and staff in the City’s public sc ...

The NCJFCJ has published a Technical Assistance Bulletin on the School Pathways to the Juvenile Justice System: A Context for a Practice Guide for Courts and Schools as part of a larger project addressing school discipline referrals to the juvenile justic ...

Youth courts, also called teen courts or student courts, handle cases involving young people referred by schools, parents, law enforcement, and other criminal justice agencies. Schools are increasingly adopting youth courts to use in place of detention a ...

In 2008, the new Mental Health/Juvenile Justice Action Network selected “early diversion” as its first area of focus. Its goal was to create opportunities for youth with mental health needs to be diverted as early as possible from involvement with the juv ...

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) funded the School-Based Partnerships (SBP) grant program for the purpose of partnering law enforcement agencies with schools to address crime and disorder problems in and around middle and h ...

The Let Her Learn Survey revealed that more than 1 in 5 girls have been sexually assaulted, while 1 in 3 girls reported either sexual assault or other violence. As a result of educational barriers, girls are being pushed out of school. There was an increa ...

The Children’s Defense Fund’s report, Suspensions: Are They Helping Children? first brought the issue of racial disparities in discipline to national attention. African American over-representation in out-of-school suspensions has increased steadily from ...

Many students across the Nation struggle with emotional and behavioral problems that may lead them to act out in ways that school administrators and teachers might not understand or be prepared to respond to effectively. In today’s era of highstakes testi ...

In the early 1990s, many schools adopted zero tolerance policies, which mandate the use of specific disciplinary consequences—often severe and punitive—in an effort to increase school safety. Originally designed to reduce weapon-carrying in schools, these ...

Ironically, zero tolerance policies once promoted as a solution to youth violence have created a school to prison pipeline. Widespread discipline practices of suspension, expulsion, and arrest for school behavior problems are turning kids in conflict int ...

Effective school resource officer (SRO) programs recognize and utilize the special training and expertise law enforcement officers possess that is well suited to effectively protect and serve the school community. SROs contribute to the school safety t ...

This toolkit provides a step-by-step guide for implementing some of the core principles and activities of the full SBDI initiative. A simple-to-use checklist is included to guide you through implementation of key SBDI elements. There are self-assessment q ...

Millions of U.S. public school students in grades K‒12 are suspended or expelled in an academic school year, particularly students in middle and high school.2 Research demonstrates that when students are removed from the classroom as a disciplinary measur ...

RESEARCH AND DATA ON SCHOOL DISCIPLINE practices are clear: millions of students are being removed from their classrooms each year, mostly in middle and high schools, and overwhelmingly for minor misconduct. When suspended, these students are at a signif ...

Across Colorado and the country, there is more attention on school discipline issues and the "school-to-prison pipeline" than ever before. The overuse of out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, police tickets, and school-based arrests – particularly for St ...

Excerpt: "Suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests are used too often in our schools and disproportionately impact students of color. According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, during the 2013-2014 school year, Black K-12 studen ...

Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado. Heath High School, West Paducah, Kentucky.3 Westside Middle School, Jonesboro, Arkansas. Zero tolerance policies5 were adopted in these schools and around the country in response to tragic school shooting eve ...