The Council of State Governments Justice Center released a report on June 3 entitled “The School Discipline Consensus Report: Strategies from the Field to Keep Students Engaged in School and Out of the Juvenile Justice System,” here.
Detentions & lesser punishments are recommended for lesser offenses.
In all, the School Discipline Consensus Project has benefited from the engagement of more than 700 individuals. The School Discipline Consensus Project was administered in coordination with the joint US Departments of Justice and Education Supportive School Discipline Initiative, announced by Atty Gen Eric Holder and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in 2011. The report is the product of field-driven recommendations on school discipline policies and practices.
“Millions of students are being removed from their classrooms each year, mostly in middle and high schools, and overwhelmingly for minor misconduct,” the report’s executive summary states. “When suspended, these students are at a significantly higher risk of falling behind academically, dropping out of school, and coming into contact with the juvenile justice system. A disproportionately large percentage of disciplined students are youth of color, students with disabilities, and youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT).”
Whereas nobody questions the need to remove students who threaten school safety from the campus or to have them arrested, actual safety-threatening incidents were considered rare. School remains the safest place for young people to be during the day, the report finds.
High suspension and expulsion rates promote reduced feelings of safety, interviews found, and parents groups, researchers, and professional organizations have led the way in the use of research-based approaches to address student misbehavior: holding young people accountable for their actions, attending to victims’ needs, and improving student conduct and adult responses.
The report recommends that law enforcement, school, and other authorities combine forces to not only help schools reduce the number of students suspended, expelled, and arrested, but also “to provide conditions for learning wherein all students feel safe, welcome, and supported.”
Achieving these objectives, though, will require the combination of a positive school climate, tiered levels of behavioral interventions, and a partnership between education, police, and court officials that is dedicated to preventing youth arrests or referrals to the juvenile justice system for minor school-based offenses.
A news report of the report’s release is available from the Washington Post, here.
