Corporal punishment (CP), or inflicting pain through spanking, hitting, and paddling, is still legally sanctioned and exercised in U.S. schools. We use critical discourse analysis and draw on state policy documents and data from the Office of Civil Rights to investigate which discourses pervade policy texts and how CP is practiced. These sources…

Restraint and seclusion are frequently misused in schools, leading to harmful outcomes for students. There is currently no federal law regulating these practices, which has led to inconsistencies in state and district policies. This policy paper aims to provide a brief background on current definitions, case law, and policies and provide teachers…

Since the incorporation of student chronic absenteeism rates into state school accountability systems after the passage of the "Every Student Succeeds Act," schools have adopted new practices to improve student attendance and decrease chronic absenteeism. Some of these practices borrow features from behavior management systems such as…

Disparate impact is the dubious approach to civil rights enforcement that claims that an entirely neutral policy that does not discriminate on its face, is not intended to discriminate, and does not actually treat individuals differently based on their race still constitutes illegal racial discrimination if it has a "disproportionate"…

Court-involved, female students often experience trauma and disproportionate school discipline, complicating their academic success. This mixed-method study examines students' use of and experiences with the Monarch Room (MR), a trauma-informed disciplinary alternative. The study examines service utilization, using a repeated measures analysis of…

In May and June 2015, the ninth annual "Education Next" survey was administered to a nationally representative sample of some 4,000 respondents, including oversamples of roughly 700 teachers, 700 African Americans, and 700 Hispanics. The 2015 survey posed many new questions exploring opinion on curricular and other issues that have never…

The present study determined the extent to which teachers' fear of litigation limits their disciplinary actions, including any significant differences by period, demographic factors, and item type. Teachers' perceptions of limitations placed on their disciplinary actions do not substantiate the "paralyzing fear" of litigation that…

Special education litigation remains a volatile area with significant practice implications. A review of the 2010 case law in the "Special Educator" identified discipline (manifestation determination, seclusion and restraints, harassment), evaluation/RTI, and postsecondary transition as specific areas of concern. School administrators should keep…

Cyberbullying involves repeated and unwanted aggressive behavior using the Internet, cell phones or other digital devices and is used to hurt or embarrass another person. The National Crime Prevention Council found that 43% of teens had experienced some form of cyberbullying in the past year and that cyberbullying is most common among 15-16 year…

In their efforts to manage the college environment, many higher-education institutions have deployed complex systems of student discipline--often in the form of legalistic codes of conduct. Paradoxically, says the author, major challenges involving students on campuses appear to be getting worse: high-risk alcohol/drug use persists; student…

The Internet is a valuable educational tool being utilized in many classrooms today. However, Internet and computer policies restrict and limit how the Internet and computer can be used in a school. An Internet and computer policy typically limits students to use the Internet and computer for educational purposes. If a student violates this policy…

Reviews court litigation in 1999 related to disciplinary and academic decisions. Overall, the courts continued to defer to the university's decisions regarding student behavior, especially if the decisions were classified as academic, and especially in cases where the universities followed guidelines they had established in their student…

This paper reviews the literature that documents both the central events and commentary on the important developments in student discipline. Following a brief historical overview and an analysis of the implications of the precedent-setting Dixon case (1961), which has strongly stimulated and influenced recent developments in student discipline…

Courts and legislatures in the United States have looked closely at governmental practices that threaten students' educational opportunities. One area that has raised concerns is whether student discipline policies and procedures are equitable, fair, and effective. Substantial litigation has established that disciplinary actions must be…

Educators and attorneys routinely struggle with the issue of mixing academic evaluation with student discipline, as this summary of litigation reveals. The text opens with a synopsis of academic sanctions for nonattendance and unexcused absences, advising school districts that any grade-reduction policy should have an educational purpose. The…