STUDENT SUPPORT WORKS, STUDENT SUSPENSION HURTS

 Parents and their young have begun the annual pilgrimage to numerous retailers, department stores and online sites spending a small fortune on shiny new shoes, snazzy backpacks, pencils, pens, binders, electronic tablets, folders, notebooks, markers, crayons, and cool new back-to-school clothes. Kids are beginning to miss their school friends and are eager – though perhaps not admittedly – about beginning the new school year. Tragically, however, not all are excited about returning to school. Many students have fear of failure because they have failed at school before. Not because they don’t complete their homework or do poorly on school assignments. They fail because of antiquated, ineffectual, and harsh discipline policies and practices that ostracize children. I’m referring specifically to out-of-school suspensions.

Schools have barraged parents with messages on the importance of kids being at school, on time, everyday, yet some kids are told, and in some instances told repeatedly, to stay home.

A study by the American Psychological Association found that zero tolerance policies not only fail to reduce violence in schools but have instead increased disciplinary problems and dropout rates. Students who have been suspended are three times more likely to drop out by the 10th grade. Dropping out, in turn, triples the likelihood that a person will be incarcerated later in life.

Research conducted by the Center For Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project of UCLA found that American children are losing almost 18 million days of instruction due to suspensions. Yes, you read correctly, an astounding 18 millions days! The bottom line – out-of-school suspensions have proven counterproductive yet remain the primary form of discipline in schools.

So, what can we do? We can talk to our school officials. We can ask about suspension policies and the number of instruction days missed due to out-of-school suspensions last year and prior years. If the discipline policies are effective, the rates of out-of-school suspension should be decreasing. A conscientious administrator will also have suspension data disaggregated by student race, grade, and gender along with information on the types of infractions, and date, time and location of offenses in order to best implement future preventative actions.

We can ask what alternatives discipline strategies have been put into place to reduce out-of-school suspensions. Some examples include Saturday school, in-school suspensions, and mandatory community service. Even if your child has never been and is very likely never to be suspended, the whole school climate is negatively impacted by student suspensions, not to mention the financial impact. Many schools are funded by average daily attendance. We can talk to other parents or bring up the subject at a PTA meeting, underscoring the need for progress on reducing out-of-school suspensions.

We can all agree that students and teachers are entitled to a safe educational environment that is conducive to both teaching and learning. Of course there are times when a school’s authority to suspend a student plays an important role in securing a safe environment. Yet too often suspensions, specifically out-of-school ones, serve as a quick fix for student disciplinary problems that require more supportive remedies.

Contact Margaret Lavin at elementarydays@gmail.com.