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LAUSD will no longer suspend students for ‘willful defiance’
Los Angeles Unified is the first district in the state to stop suspending students for “willful defiance” – a subjective category that accounts for 54 percent of suspensions and a quarter of all expulsions across the state. The school board voted 5-2 to ban suspensions for defiance following an impassioned discussion, according to the Los Angeles Times, with one board member saying he considered this change an experiment. The vote is a victory for civil rights groups and other activists who have been working to change the “zero tolerance” approach to discipline in favor of alternatives such as referring students to counseling or contacting parents to determine the root cause of the misbehavior. Supporters of the change point out that disproportionate numbers of African American students are suspended for willful defiance. African … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discipline, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Quick Hits, Race, Ethnicity, Students
Bill aims to help expelled and truant students get back on track
The purpose of a complicated bill aimed at preventing students from languishing in alternative schools became much clearer after the testimony of a former student who got stuck in one. Jessie Camargo, now 18, was transferred to a community school two weeks before his eighth grade graduation. That summer he completed all the requirements set by his district, which included drug and alcohol counseling classes, 140 hours of community service, and an anger management class, but … Read entire article »
Filed under: Absence, Truancy, Discipline, Dropout prevention, Equity issues, Featured, Governance, High School Completion, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Legislature, Bills, Reporting & Analysis
Bill restricting ‘willful defiance’ for suspending students moves ahead
With new data showing that more than half of all suspensions and a quarter of expulsions in California schools are for “willful defiance” of school authorities, the Assembly Education Committee voted 6-0 on Wednesday to move forward a bill that would restrict the use of the vague category by school administrators. Assemblymember Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, who introduced Assembly Bill 420, said that current law enumerates 23 other reasons why a student can be suspended or expelled, yet … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discipline, Equity issues, Featured, Governance, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Legislature, Bills, Race, Ethnicity, Reporting & Analysis, Students
More than half of suspensions are for “willful defiance” of school authorities
More than half of all suspensions and a quarter of expulsions in California schools are for “willful defiance” of school authorities, according to a new database that State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson is scheduled to release this Friday. Until now, only very limited data on school suspensions and expulsions by school were available to researchers and others attempting to understand and address school discipline issues. The database represents a major step forward in providing … Read entire article »
Filed under: CALPADS, Data, Discipline, Featured, Reporting & Analysis
Report finds large jump in suspensions after students enter middle school
The likelihood of a student being suspended from school jumps from about 2.4 percent in elementary school to 11 percent in middle school, according to a new analysis by The Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles. When broken down by race, the numbers show the risk of suspension increases by 18 points for African American students and 11 points for Latino students, and only about 5 points for white students. “Kids are getting pushed off track to graduation,” said Daniel J. Losen, co-author with Tia Elena Martinez of Out of School & Off Track: The Overuse of Suspensions in American Middle and High Schools. The report relies on 2009-10 data from more than 26,000 U.S. middle and high schools. More than 2 million students were suspended during that … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discipline, English learners, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Quick Hits, Race, Ethnicity, Students
Report: Youth incarceration rates drop dramatically
California cut its youth incarceration rate almost in half between 1997 and 2010, but the state still ranks 11th in the nation in the proportion of youth under age 21 it confines, according to a new report. KIDS COUNT, a project of The Annie E. Casey Foundation, reports that California is part of a “dramatic decline in youth incarceration” across the nation, with rates dropping by 37 percent during that same time period. However, the United States still locks up a larger share of the youth population than any other developed country. In California, 271 per 100,000 youth are incarcerated, compared to the national average of 225. The decline occurred in California partly due to changes in state law “to explicitly prohibit commitments for less serious offenses,” according to KIDS COUNT Data Snapshot: … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discipline, Quick Hits, Race, Ethnicity, Students
Nine districts submit waiver for relief from NCLB
A collaborative of nine California school districts is submitting today a first-of-its-kind waiver seeking relief from the harshest sanctions of the No Child Left Behind law. The proposal would commit the participating districts to a new accountability system, focusing on student achievement but deemphasizing standardized test scores. The existing requirements and penalties would remain in effect for all of the other districts in the state. If U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan consents, the districts in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discipline, Equity issues, Evaluations, Featured, No Child Left Behind, Reporting & Analysis, Teachers, Tests & Assessments, U.S. Education Policy
Academy backs alternatives to ‘zero tolerance’ discipline
Pediatricians should encourage schools to rely on alternatives to expulsions and out-of-school suspensions except in the most severe situations where safety is an issue, the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a policy statement published this week. In its paper, the Academy is reiterating its position that zero tolerance practices are “of such severity that their application and appropriateness for a developing child require periodic review.” The paper adds that “out-of-school suspensions and expulsions can contribute to the risk of a student dropping out of high school.” The policy statement is in line with legislation (Assembly Bill 420) proposed by Assemblymember Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, to eliminate the use of “willful defiance” as a reason for expulsions or out-of-school suspensions. That category accounts for more than 40 percent of suspensions statewide and has … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discipline, Dropout prevention, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Quick Hits
Second effort to limit ‘willful defiance’ as cause to expel and suspend
Assemblymember Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento) is reintroducing his bill to limit the use of willfully defying authorities or disrupting school activities as a reason to suspend or expel students. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a different version of the bill, saying disciplinary practices should be left up to local school districts. The Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) and the California School Boards Association (CSBA) did not originally support the bill, though they later withdrew their … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discipline, Equity issues, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Race, Ethnicity, Reporting & Analysis, Students
It’s time to fix school discipline practices and policies
May 20th, 2013 | 30 Comments | By Sarah Omojola / commentary
All students can learn. That’s a simple but profound starting place for talking about changing school discipline policies. As a former teacher in New Orleans public schools, I am well aware of the difficulty of teaching students who have varying backgrounds, abilities and learning styles in an ever-changing school system, inundated with countless internal and external pressures. However, research has shown that students are frequently suspended on grounds such as “willful defiance” for behavior that is … Read entire article »
Filed under: Absence, Truancy, Commentary, Discipline, Dropout prevention, Equity issues, Featured, K-12 Challenges, Interventions