Some Districts Getting School Discipline Rates Under Control, Others Coming under OCR Fire

We often grow so accustomed to racial disparities and horror stories in school discipline that good news comes as unexpected.  Today, I have not one but four instances of good news.  First, Los Angles Unified School District had a high suspension rate just six years ago and came under the heat of the Office for Civil Rights.  Many of those suspensions were for "willful defiance."  In 2007, the district adoped a new school discipline policy.  In 2011, it entered into an agreement with OCR to make additional changes to stop suspending students for defiance.  These two steps, along with a lot of hands-on work, has resulted in a dramatic change in the district.  The suspension rate has fallen from 8.1% of students to 1.5% in just six years.  More on that story here.

Second, Calvert County, Maryland announced a change to its weapons policy.  The policy previously had been applied in an extremely broad way and had resulted in the suspenion of students who did not have weapons, but rather had pointed their fingers like guns, carried toy guns and chewed a  a Pop-Tart-like pastry into the shape of a gun.  The final story made national news.  At least in the area of weapons, we should expect a significant drop in suspensions in the future.

Third, the Boston Public School Committee adopted a new Code of Conduct that centers on alternative discipline and intervention and rehabilitative services.  With this move, Boston became the first school district to revise its Code of Conduct to implement a new state law that requires schools to exclude students only as a last resort.  More information here.

Fourth, OCR confirmed that it will investigate a complaint that NAACP LDF and Texas Appleseed filed in regard to the racially “disparate impact” of Bryan Independent School District’s discipline policies.  The district issues criminal citations for minor misbehaviors and African-Americans receive these tickets at four times the rate of their peers.  Credit goes to OCR for stepping up in the area of discipline in recent years.  It obviously played a major role in the changes in Los Angeles.  Hopefully, it can do the same in Bryan.