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Discipline and Policing in Pennsylvania Public Schools “Zero tolerance” describes a policy that “assigns explicit, predetermined punishments to specific violations of school rules, regardless of the situation or context of the behavior.” The original r ...

The main body of this report documents gross disparities in the use of out-of-school suspension experienced by students with disabilities and those from historically disadvantaged racial, ethnic, and gender subgroups. The egregious disparities revealed in ...

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 ...

The Office of Special Education (OSEP) Technical Assistance Center for PBIS, was established by the OSEP, U.S. Department of Education to give schools capacity-building information and technical assistance for identifying, adapting, and sustaining effecti ...

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 ...

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 story is very sad and way too familiar. Ryan, a third­grader who lives in a San Francisco housing project, watched his father beat up his mother one night, something he’d witnessed since infancy. His dad was arrested, his mom was taken off in an am ...

The “school to prison pipeline” is a phenomenon that has occurred over the last few decades as school systems have increasingly relied upon zero tolerance policies and law enforcement to manage discipline in schools, resulting in rising incidents of suspe ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Alternative schools are essentially specialized educational environments that place a great deal of emphasis on small classrooms, high teacher-to-student ratios, individualized instruction, noncompetitive performance assessments, and less structured class ...

Schools and school districts around the country are turning to restorative justice practices as an alternative to harsh exclusionary discipline practices. Restorative justice is a philosophy, rather than a specific program or curriculum, which focuses on ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

The report that follows has been supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense. While it draws on research and examples from public schools across America, the issues of school connectedness have special salience for children who have one or b ...

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 ...

The Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative, developed as a collaboration of the U.S. Departments of Education (ED), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Justice (DOJ), strengthens the role of schools as healthy environments that support the acad ...

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 ...

The restraint and seclusion of individuals—practices usually associated with highly restrictive environments—are extreme responses to student behavior used in some public schools (see Box 1). This brief aims to answer important questions about the extent ...

This compilation presents school discipline-related laws and regulations for U.S. states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia, and, where available, links to education agency websites or resources related to school discipline and student condu ...

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 ...

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 ...

A tool for SWPBS self-assessing admin support, team-based system, use of data, policies, products (e.g., handbook), district support, family involvement, budget, and visibility.

Corresponding document on 'Understanding and Responding to Escalating Behavior' presentation by Dr. Sugai and Dr. Colvin.

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 ...

This document provides a list of simple and straightforward strategies educators can use to accommodate a traumatized child in the school setting. It also teaches educators how to determine when traumatic stress reactions are severe enough to merit a refe ...

These comprehensive documents are intended for educators who work primarily with preschool, elementary, middle school, and high school students, respectively. They describe how to identify children in the four age groups who may be experiencing traumatic ...

These comprehensive documents are intended for educators who work primarily with preschool, elementary, middle school, and high school students, respectively. They describe how to identify children in the four age groups who may be experiencing traumatic ...

Working daily with children who have been exposed to trauma can be very difficult for school professionals. This handout defines secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and vicarious traumatization: three reactions that educators who work with tra ...

The number of students issued suspensions in U.S. schools continues to be extremely high, resulting in thousands of students missing school every day. Simultaneously, disparities in school suspension continue to worsen, indicating that students in some gr ...

Every young person has the human right to a high quality education and to learn in a safe, respectful school environment that protects human dignity. Research has shown that punitive, zero-tolerance approaches to discipline do not prevent or reduce misbe ...

New data from the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) estimates that over 3 million students are suspended or expelled every year, with minorities and special needs students often facing harsher discipline than their peers for the same offenses. Such excl ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

This simple one-page questionnaire can be used to uncover differences in teacher and student perceptions, as an activity to open professional development programs related to school climate and safety, or as part of larger school-climate assessments that a ...

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 ...

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 ...

Traumatic events cause terror, intense fear, horror, helplessness, and physical stress reactions (for example, heart beating fast, strong startle, stomach dropping, shakiness). The impact of these events does not simply go away when they are over. Instead ...

General The term developmental disability means a severe, chronic disability of an individual that 1. is attributable to a mental or physical impairment or combination of mental and physical impairments; 2. is manifested before the individual attains ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

In Summer 2011, Education Secretary Duncan and Attorney General Holder announced the launch of a collaborative project – the Supportive School Discipline Initiative (Initiative) – between the U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Justice (DOJ) to support ...

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 ...

The US Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights and the US Department Of Justice's Civil Rights Division will review recent Federal guidance to school districts which outlines each school’s obligation under the Civil Rights Act to administer disci ...

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 ...

This second Webinar in the joint U.S. Departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services Supportive School Discipline (SSD) Webinar Series provides the knowledge that school, district, residential facility, and court staff, law enforcement, ...

After years of study, the research is clear: (1) the impact of truancy on students, schools, communities and society is profound; and, (2) it is critical to take a multi-faceted approach to prevent and reduce truancy. This webinar features positive and c ...

With the potential of teaching conflict resolution skills, fostering understanding and empathy, and building stronger relationships in schools and communities, restorative justice has proven to be an effective alternative to punitive and exclusionary resp ...

The U.S. Department of Education (ED), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), released on January 8th a school discipline guidance package that will assist states, districts and schools in developing solutions to enhance school climat ...

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 ...

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 ...

This report presents the findings and recommendations of the Youth Justice Board, an after school program that engages New York City teenagers in studying public policy issues that affect young people. Since August 2012, the Youth Justice Board has focuse ...

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 ...

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 ...

Lawmakers have set aside $10 million in one-time funds to be used during the next three years to train teachers and administrators across the state on how to use more positive approaches to disciplining students.

This High School Early Warning Intervention Monitoring System (EWIMS) Implementation Guide is a supporting document for schools and districts that are implementing an early warning system or, specifically, the National High School Center’s Early Warning S ...

This webinar profiled Connecticut’s school-based diversion programs, developed with help from the MacArthur Foundation's Models for Change initiative and technical assistance from the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice, to reduce the f ...

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 ...

This report examines available mental health services in school settings in Connecticut and summarizes the benefits and challenges of expanding these services to meet the current need. It also offers a framework to guide policy development and systems ref ...

Prevalence rates of mental illness among U.S. children and adolescents continue to show that American youth are facing a mental health crisis. Among all children, about 1 in 5 youth have a diagnosable and treatable psychiatric disorder, yet only a quarter ...

Childhood trauma exposure is a significant public health concern. Children are exposed to potentially traumatic events at alarming rates and the negative effects of untreated traumatic stress can last a lifetime. By the age of 17, more than 71% of all chi ...

Showing up on time every day is important to your child's success and learning from preschool forward.

Keep your child on track in middle and high school. Showing up for school has a huge impact on a student’s academic success starting in kindergarten and continuing through high school. Even as children grow older and more independent, families play a ...

Every year, as many as 7.5 million students nationwide are chronically absent, meaning they miss 10 percent or more of the school year for any reason, excused or unexcused. That level of absenteeism predicts poor academic performance as early as prescho ...

Your student is about to start the most important year of high school - perhaps the most important year of school so far. This is the year that will set the stage for whether they will graduate and whether they will be ready for college.

The first webinar in this series of four provides an overview of two school-based diversion initiatives that emerged from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change Mental Health/Juvenile Justice Action Network, and that have be ...

The 2011 edition of the C.A.R.E. Guide contains student activities, educator reflection opportunities, and video clips of experts sharing research and practice tips for educating culturally diverse students and students from low-income families.

Exert from website: "Restorative Justice Practices in U.S. Schools Restorative justice is an approach to offending behavior that focuses on repairing harm and restoring relationships, rather than just punishing the perpetrator. Schools are increasi ...

Exert from website: "Restorative Justice Practices in U.S. Schools Restorative justice is an approach to offending behavior that focuses on repairing harm and restoring relationships, rather than just punishing the perpetrator. Schools are increasi ...

Exert from website: "Restorative justice is an approach to offending behavior that focuses on repairing harm and restoring relationships, rather than just punishing the perpetrator. Schools are increasingly adopting restorative justice to address conc ...

Exert from website: "Restorative justice is an approach to offending behavior that focuses on repairing harm and restoring relationships, rather than just punishing the perpetrator. Schools are increasingly adopting restorative justice to address conce ...

Exert from website: The SAEBRS is a brief tool supported by research for use in universal screening for behavioral and emotional risk. The measure falls within a broad class of highly efficient tools, suitable for teacher use in evaluating and rating a ...

"Restorative Practices, when broadly and consistently implemented, will promote and strengthen positive school culture and enhance pro-social relationships within the school community. Restorative Practices are based on principles that emphasize the i ...

Exert from website: "This planning guide provides a rationale for addressing disparities in school discipline and discusses core issues related to disparities. It is organized into three stages: Digging Into the Data, Getting at the Roots of Dispariti ...

Exert: "Imagine a world where no child has experienced a traumatic event. In this world, students experience behavioral and emotional security, teachers manage classrooms free from the toll that trauma takes on their students, and society is free fro ...

Exert from publication: A trauma-sensitive school is a safe and respectful environment that enables students to build caring relationships with adults and peers, self-regulate their emotions and behaviors, and succeed academically, while supporting their ...

Exert from article: Ending the summer and beginning a new school year is a source of both excitement and anxiety for most children. But amidst the thrill of choosing special school supplies, finding a distinctive backpack, and shopping for new clothes ...

Exert: Published in 2005, TLPI’s landmark report summarizes research from psychology and neurobiology that documents the impact trauma from exposure to violence can have on children’s learning, behavior and relationships in school. The report also introdu ...

Exert: Volume 2 of Helping Traumatized Children Learn: Creating and Advocating for Trauma-Sensitive Schools, safe, supportive learning environments that benefit all children offers a Guide to a process for creating trauma-sensitive schools and a policy ag ...

Exert from website: Meredith Kolodner writes about high schools which are successfully decreasing suspensions and expulsions through trauma sensitive practices that address the reasons for a student’s behavior. In her article, “How Schools Can Lower Su ...

Exert from publication: A mid-sized urban district in the Northeast and Islands Region formulated and implemented a new discipline policy using data and research. To do so, the district examined a national report on districtwide suspension rates, co ...

Exert from publication: School suspension rates have been rising since the early 1970s, especially for children of color. One body of research has demonstrated that suspension from school is harmful to students, as it increases the risk of retention and s ...

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 ...

The Justice Technology Information Center (JTIC), a component of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center, has launched a free app to help school resource officers and administrators address school safety and incident prevention. The ...

A well implemented early warning system can help educators and others identify students at risk of dropping out and assign and monitor interventions to keep them on track for graduation. This guide describes and provides examples of early warning system ...

What is the SECURe State and Local Policy Rubric? The U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Justice (DOJ) have designed the SECURe State and Local Policy Rubric to provide information for States and local governments looking to develop or revise statu ...

What is the SECURe Local Implementation Rubric? The U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Justice (DOJ) have designed the SECURe Local Implementation Rubric to help school districts, schools, and law enforcement agencies determine the type of school-pol ...

What is the purpose of this document? The purpose of this document is to summarize evidence-based, positive, proactive, and responsive classroom behavior intervention and support strategies for teachers. These strategies should be used classroom-wide, ...

Exert from publication: Students learn best when they are in environments in which they feel safe, supported, challenged, and accepted. In addition, environments that have strong school climates foster the social, emotional, and academic well-being of ...

Exert: The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education is a four-part resource that brings together research, promising practices, and useful tools and resources to guide educators in strengthening partnersh ...

Exert: The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education is a four-part resource that brings together research, promising practices, and useful tools and resources to guide educators in strengthening partnersh ...

Exert: The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education is a four-part resource that brings together research, promising practices, and useful tools and resources to guide educators in strengthening partnersh ...

Exert: The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education is a four-part resource that brings together research, promising practices, and useful tools and resources to guide educators in strengthening partnersh ...

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, in partnership with the National Association of School Boards of Education and supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's School Justice Collaboration Program, present ...

Exert: This document provides answers to frequently asked questions on the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and the education rights of children and youth in homeless situations, based on the amendments made by the Every Student Succee ...

Exert: The ED School Climate Surveys (EDSCLS) are a suite of survey instruments being developed for schools, school districts, and states by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Through the EDSCLS, scho ...

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) is a critical document in establishing coordinated efforts in a school-justice partnership. An MOU is a multilateral agreement among multiple parties intended to express a common vision and line of action. MOUs in schoo ...

Severe trauma in children causes toxic stress in kids, which can damage the brain and lead to the child being put in a flight, fight, or fright mode that is physiologically impossible to learn in. Being a trauma-informed school means shifting the discipli ...

Severe trauma in children causes toxic stress in kids, which can damage the brain and lead to the child being put in a flight, fight, or fright mode that is physiologically impossible to learn in. Being a trauma-informed school means shifting the discipli ...

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 ...

Excerpt: This resource is intended to help educators understand how they might address the interplay of race and trauma and its effects on students in the classroom. After defining key terms, the guide outlines recommendations for educators and offers ...

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 ...

The impact of students’ life experiences on their behavior has garnered increasing attention as schools strive to develop more supportive academic environments that address the needs of at-risk youth and facilitate continued academic engagement. Few event ...