School discipline policies are broadly intended to foster a high-quality learning environment by maintaining safety in the classroom; however, far too often, schools adopt measures that harm a student's social, emotional, academic, and in some cases, physical health and well-being. To create physically safe and emotionally supportive environments…

Rather than creating safer schools, punitive policies--such as zero-tolerance discipline policies--appear only to have created hostile learning environments. In response, many advocacy organizations have urged schools to adopt a human rights framework, including restorative practices. Schools with restorative approaches have noted dramatic…

Every day in New York City, between 90,000 and 100,000 young people, almost all of them Black and Latina/o, must show up to school thirty to forty-five minutes before their first class begins because they attend schools with metal detectors and scanners. School administrators and policymakers have accepted this scenario as part of Black and…

Middle and high school students subjected to harsh school discipline policies and practices such as suspensions and expulsions are more likely to disengage from the classroom and course work, and increases their chances of dropping out, according to this new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. The report recommends implementing…

Well-disciplined schools make appropriate school discipline a part of every curriculum, program, and practice. Key organizational variables include staff and community involvement, sensitivity to students' racial and socioeconomic concerns, and effective intervention strategies, such as the anger-management seminars, awareness discussion groups,…

In-school suspension (ISS) removes a student from regular academic classes but keeps the student in an isolated, separate, and restricted environment where, in most cases, academic work continues. Such programs have increased rapidly in American secondary schools, and have been mandated in New York State by the New York State Education Department…