Keeping students in the classroom so that they are engaged with their teachers is a struggle. Students have many distractions in their lives other than school. When students are disruptive in the classroom the code of conduct or student handbook dictates the student's punishment. These are the zero-tolerance policies established in 1994 (Evans…

This qualitative study delves into the perspectives of school leaders in a Canadian province, exploring their views on student suspensions and alternative approaches to school discipline. Amid a provincial advocacy organization's call for a review and reduction of suspensions in that jurisdiction, the study captures both constructive and critical…

Recent years have seen a range of new state policies to reduce and prevent the use of suspension and expulsion in early childhood education (ECE) settings. Policymakers in some states have worked to limit disciplinary removals in public ECE programs by restricting suspension and expulsion in early grade levels and requiring or encouraging…

The use of exclusionary discipline practices in schools has continued to increase since the advent of Zero Tolerance discipline policies in the 1990s. Research indicates that these practices are largely ineffective in addressing behavior, and result in detrimental outcomes for students and communities. This study focused on the use of Disciplinary…

The primary goal of the present mixed methods review is to systematically examine the available evidence for the effectiveness of different types of school-based interventions for reducing disciplinary school exclusion. Quantitative evidence will help to understand the overall size of the impact, as well as the factors that better explain it.…

This study examines the impact of an alternative to suspension program on second semester office discipline referrals for participating students. The study compares students who completed the intervention program with those who would have qualified during the school year prior to the program being available at the school district. The study was…

The education field has long wrestled with how to best handle students who behave badly. Specifically, students who behave in an unsafe manner towards other students present a special conundrum and the traditional response has been to suspend them (Adams, 2000; Black, 2016; Cerrone, 1999; Fabelo et al., 2011; Rumberger et al.,2016). The purpose of…

Male students of color often receive harsher disciplinary consequences than their same age White peers. Disproportionate discipline practices have existed within the education system for years, primarily due to a historical systemic issue of implicit bias due to race. One intervention used to quell some of these disparities is Restorative…

Background: Suspensions can have negative effects on students' immediate academic and long-run outcomes, including increasing their likelihood of being arrested and incarcerated as an adult (Bacher-Hicks, Billings, Deming, 2019). School discipline practices have become a concern of families and policymakers and there have been increasing local,…

School leaders play an important role in implementing social emotional learning (SEL) and equitable discipline practices. A Northeastern United States school district initiated the use of SEL programs districtwide to reduce suspensions, and no follow-up has been conducted to explore how school principals adapted implementation to correspond with…

The prevalence of racial disparities in discipline outcomes continues despite a prominence of new strategies and research. When implemented with fidelity, PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) is shown to contribute to reductions in school suspension, expulsion, and other positive educational outcomes. Despite its promise for making…

The 2021 LDOE report emphasized out-of-school suspensions and expulsions as a key concern in student well-being. It revealed that Louisiana students missed 30,259 days of instruction due to suspensions, equivalent to 180,000 hours or 168 school years of lost learning. The report provided a list of 41 offenses, with instigating/participating in…

Purpose: Over the past decade, increasing attention to the negative impacts of exclusionary discipline and disparities therein has led many state educational leaders to enact school discipline reforms. This study examined the response by school district leadership to a state's revision of guidelines for student codes of conduct. Data: This study…

Nationally, educators suspend Black students at greater rates than any other group (U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, 2016). This disproportionality is fueled by stereotypes casting Black students as "troublemakers" (Okonofua, Walton, & Eberhardt, 2016)--a label the students too often internalize as part of their…

The current policy terrain is primed for schools to absorb new discipline strategies and address bias-based beliefs. Over the past 10 years, numerous policy changes regarding discipline have emerged at the federal and state levels. I argue these policy shifts, primarily at the state level, are using two of four value levers (quality, efficiency,…