Improving School Discipline Practices and Reducing School-Based Arrests in Connecticut

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 federal guidelines address the overuse of exclusionary discipline practices in schools, including the use of arrests, expulsions, and out-of-school suspensions, as responses to relatively minor and non-violent behavioral incidents. A growing body of research demonstrates the harmful effects of exclusionary discipline on the long-term academic, social, emotional, and behavioral functioning of youth.