The Maryland State Board of Education today adopted new regulations guiding student discipline. The regulations are designed to keep students in school and maintain progress toward graduation, while strengthening school safety.
The number of suspensions in Maryland public schools has dropped over the last five years, the Baltimore Sun reported, although the Sun’s graphic is missing an important label on the vertical axis, which means I don’t know what is being measured. We reported in August 2012 that the state board had been tweaking the student discipline policies for some time, here:
According to board President James H. DeGraffenreidt Jr, Maryland’s main accomplishment was to bring student learning and disciplinary consequences into the same conversation, moving away from the get-tough approach after the Columbine massacre in 1999. “We have taken the best thinking from around the state and turned out something that is workable for our local districts to implement,” the Post quoted him as saying. The new regulations—adopted in a 10-0 vote with two Board members absent—represent “a common-sense change.”
The regulations adopted in this round of change require local school systems to adopt policies that reduce long-term out-of-school suspensions and expulsions, and use such actions only when a student poses an imminent threat of serious harm to other students or staff, or when a student is engaged in chronic or extreme disruptive behavior.
In addition, the regulations seek to expedite the student discipline appeal process by allowing local boards of education to hear and decide school discipline appeals with an opportunity to extend that time period in complex cases.
“Safe schools grow out of a positive school climate,” said State Board President Charlene M Dukes. “Maryland is dedicated to maintaining safety while increasing student achievement. In order for students to achieve success, they must be in school.”
The regulations also seek to eliminate the disproportionate impact of school discipline on students of color and students with disabilities. MSDE will develop a method to analyze local school discipline data to measure the disproportionate impact on minority and special education students.
Local boards of education will be required to update their student discipline polices based on the new regulations by the beginning of the 2014-15 school year. The proposed regulations were published in the Maryland Register on December 13.
Today’s vote represents the culmination of more than four years of study by State Board members, a process that has included unprecedented collaboration with educators, local board members, and other stakeholders. The State Board invited dozens of educators and interested organizations to testify and provide input as part of that process. Board members have been concerned by the number and length of student suspensions, the impact that loss of class time has on academic success and the achievement gap, and the effect that suspensions have on certain student subgroups.
The revised code can be viewed here (PDF).
Update, Feb 17:
An op-ed piece in the New York Times adds significantly to the story above. We have posted more details in a follow-up to the policy change based on an excellent report in the Baltimore Sun, available here.
According to the Sun’s report, students are showing an increasing level of violence against teachers (and causing a higher level of workers’ compensation payouts by the government-run school system) because they are not deterred by punishment under the changing discipline rules.
There must be a balance between the maintenance of a safe classroom climate and environment and the idea of keeping kids in class to make better progress toward graduation.
The Washington County Board of Education has taken another step toward updating its student discipline regulations, the Herald-Mail reports.
The school board voted unanimously April 1 to rescind its current student disciplinary policy and to approve a new updated policy, according to an online video of the board meeting.
Board Vice President Donna Brightman said the current policy will remain in effect for the remainder of this school year, the video said. However, a new policy, modeled after the one described in this article (written by the state board), would likely go into effect next school year.