Promising Practices in School Discipline

Administrators’ Management
Meeting December 13, 2017

Presented by:
Dr. Timothy King, Flagler County Schools, Director of Exceptional Student Education
David Bossardet, Flagler County Schools, Discipline and Behavior Specialist

Today’s Objectives

↗	Exploring Disproportionality
↗	Rethinking Discipline Philosophy
↗	View Flagler’s Promising Practices

Exploring Disproportionality

How is Disproportionality Defined?

↗	In general, disproportionate representation, or disproportionality
↗	refers to the over- or under-representation of a given population group
↗	often defined by racial and ethnic backgrounds

Other Subgroup Impacted by Disproportionality

The Impact of Disproportionality

↗	Racial and ethnic disparities in educational setting where students are likely to receive service in more restrictive settings (OSEP, 2002.

↗	Exclusionary discipline exacerbates behavior and attendance problems and contributes to poor academic performance (Bridgeland, DiIulio, & Morison, 2006; Gleason & Dynarski, 2002).

↗		Students who are suspended or expelled miss classroom instruction time and thus fall behind in their coursework (Fabelo et al., 2011).

↗	Suspension has also been linked to a greater likelihood of recurring misbehavior and future suspension (Anfinson et al., 2010).

Causes of Disproportionate Practices

↗	Discipline Policies and Practices
↗	Students of color are more likely to be harshly disciplined and interpreted as having a disability than their white peers (Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002).
↗	Interventions and Referrals
↗	Students are also often referred to special education without sufficient exposure to high-quality interventions that support their learning (Donovan & Cross, 2002; Harry & Klingner, 2006)
↗	Cultural Dissonance
↗	Several researchers have found that cultural dissonance or cultural mismatch between practitioners, families, and students can negatively affect student engagement, academic performance, and behavior (Delpit, 1995; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Pollock, 2004)

How Do We Shift our Mindset?

↗	Advocate for Equity
↗	Eradicate Disenfranchising Practices
↗	Self-examination (Color-blindness)
↗	Fight for Others Rights
↗	Commit to an Equitable Learning Environment

Rethinking Discipline Philosophy

Historical Approach to Discipline

Flagler’s Journey

↗	SPLC and OCR Lawsuit
↗	The complaint alleged that while black students made up 16 percent of the district, they accounted for 31 percent of all out-of-school suspensions.
↗	District leaders sat down with the SPLC to try to find a solution.
↗	Inward reflection
↗	Difficult Conversation
↗	Honest Dialogue
↗	Where are we now?
↗	Where do we want to go?

Our Broken Approach

↗	Discipline and punishment are sometimes confused and used as synonyms of each other. Those words are not the same and should not be used interchangeably.
↗	Discipline vs Punishment
↗	Carlson (2009)
↗	Punishment is a physical or psychological…
↗	Discipline is a process of teaching…
↗	Silm (2013)
↗	Punishment by fear…
↗	Discipline by teaching, train, and guide…

How Did We Fix It?

↗	Inward Reflection
↗	How much is noise? How much are facts?
↗	Difficult Conversation
↗	When the facts and the noise are the same, the problem is real.
↗	Honest Dialogue
↗	Can we give our students the best opportunities?
↗	What does research tell us?
↗	Where are we now?
↗	Where do we want to go?
↗	Secure the Resources
↗	The price is always negotiable.

Flagler School Promising Practices and Results

Change in Philosophy

↗	Distinguished between Discipline and Punishment
↗	Developed Common Language across the District
↗	Aligned our Discipline Matrix
↗	Removed 10 days OSS Infractions
↗	Got buy-in from staff for “In Lieu of OSS Options”

In Lieu of Suspensions

Addresses student behavior by:
●	Taking a proactive stance
●	Creating learning opportunities
●	Providing preventative interventions
●	Collaborating with all stakeholders
●	

Why use In-Lieu of Suspension options

Before	After

Kept students off campus for extended periods of time.
Provided few opportunities for students to learn from mistakes
Created a disconnect

amongst the school staff and families
Negatively impacted student achievement

Reduce maximum suspensions while keeping campuses safe by providing specific interventions for students and parents
Help students to
understand the mistake and how to prevent recurrence Created a partnership between school staff and families

How it works

Process for In-Lieu
●	Define infraction and match with the required consequence
●	If OSS is warranted, find an in-lieu option, when applicable
●	Sign parent up and provide them with necessary information
●	Adjust discipline file and attendance record as needed.

Types of In-Lieu:
●	Community Service
●	Fire Starter Prevention
●	Tobacco Offenses
●	Student/Parent Seminars
●	Digital Citizenship Course
●	
Days OSS

6055

5112	5093

4141	1'056

3877	3786

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Days OSS  by Race

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2016-17

Flagler Graduation Rate
100% ---------------

75%

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78%

78%

77%

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50%

25%

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Questions