Discipline and special ed: Schools work to reduce suspensions

Debra Barr understands how everyday occurrences in schools can escalate and result in multi-day suspensions. Until recently, that was commonplace in her district.

“We realized that what we were doing wasn’t working,” says Ms. Barr, the director of student services and behavior supports at Port Huron Area School District in Michigan. Prior to a district-wide emphasis on school culture, she says, “we were losing too many students to dropping out or the criminal justice system.”

How to approach discipline in an equitable way is being debated across the United States, as educators struggle with finding a balance between being too punitive and feeling limited in their options for creating safe learning environments. The Department of Education signaled recently that it may alter or rescind Obama-era guidance aimed at addressing disparities in discipline, in part because of mixed feedback.

Data prompts changesNational guidanceDistrict-wide buy in