We conducted focus groups with high school staff, students, parents and administrators to gain information about how to design professional development training supporting high school staff in implementing restorative practices within a multi-tiered support system. Results indicated that all stakeholders valued trust and relationship building, and…

Discipline issues are obstacles towards childhood learning in elementary school settings. There are a number of factors which positively and negatively affect a student's behavior in the classroom, and past literature was explored and an analysis of that literature performed in order to obtain a clear idea about the techniques, relationships, and…

This chapter tells the story of how and why one student who received a ticket for being late to school joined the fight against policies that criminalize students in Los Angeles Unified School District.

Keeping a good disciplinary climate is a key to student learning and well-being. Disciplinary norms need to be clearly established and applied fairly and consistently. Yet, strictness alone cannot optimise student outcomes: students need support and understanding.

This study estimates racial/ethnic discipline gaps, using multiple measures of school discipline outcomes, in nearly all school districts in the United States with data collected by the Office of Civil Rights between 2013 and 2014. Just like racial/ethnic achievement gaps, discipline gaps also vary substantially, ranging from negative to greater…

Despite the prohibition on punishment in the form of emotional, psychological and physical abuse under the Fascist school regulations, it was common--particularly in Italian rural classrooms--for the purpose of managing and disciplining students. Sticks, "chickpeas" or "donkey desks" represent just a few examples of the methods…

The 2022 Legislature directed the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to create an advisory workgroup with specific participants to report back on topics related to student isolation and seclusion. This legislative report provides a background on the workgroup, history of isolation and restraint, current practices in the state of…

School psychologists are frequently called upon to assess students who have made verbal or behavioral threats of violence against others, a practice commonly known as threat assessment. One critical issue is whether the outcomes of a threat assessment generate the kind of racial disparities widely observed in school disciplinary practices. In…

This report summarizes analyses of survey responses of approximately 101,310 teachers and principals who, between 1999-00 and 2011-12, answered the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) and the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), two national surveys. Their responses to most recurrent discipline incidents and to most serious problems facing…

The purpose of this qualitative document analysis research study was to explore how public high schools in California create local unexcused absence and truancy policies in similar and different ways. The study used Lipsky's "street-level bureaucracy" and the American Psychological Association Zero Tolerance Task Force's definition of…

Disparities in school discipline data is a national concern. Schools across the nation are working to eliminate these disparities. This literature review considers one response to the disproportionate data, restorative practices. This article examines why exclusionary approaches to discipline are ineffective, contribute to imbalanced discipline…

A common response to school violence features the use of security measures to deter serious and violent incidents. However, a second approach, based on school climate theory, suggests that schools exhibiting authoritative school discipline (i.e., high structure and support) might more effectively reduce school disorder. We tested these approaches…

As the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015 moves forward, the overuse of exclusionary discipline practices in schools, and the role such practices play in perpetuating the school-to-prison pipeline, deservedly continue to garner national attention. Under these harsh practices, children are suspended and expelled from…

In the three essays in this thesis, I explore the effect of school discipline policies on the suspension of public-school students, in an urban setting. In the first essay, using aggregate data, I investigate the effect of zero-tolerance disciplinary polices on secondary-school students. Capitalizing on a natural experiment, I used a…

The report contains real-world, proven school climate strategies to guide policymakers in building a comprehensive and coherent state-wide approach for improving school climate. It features 12 recommendations linked to existing state policy examples policymakers can use to build a comprehensive, coherent state-wide approach for improving school…