April 02--As many educators nationwide move away from suspensions and expulsions, Illinois has gotten on board with a new school discipline law that includes measures designed to limit punishments that remove kids from class.
For many school districts in Aurora, Naperville and Elgin, the law won't mean major changes to discipline philosophy. But for East Aurora School District 131, it will require rethinking the district's response to some student infractions and taking steps to include parents and teachers in the discipline process.
East Aurora students could, in the past, face suspension or expulsion for bringing a fake weapon to class. But sometimes that included elementary school students who brought a squirt gun to class, or a child who brought a plastic sword in for show-and-tell, said Mark Truckenbrod, district director of leadership development.
"We'll really be focusing now on the intention of bringing that item to school," he said.
The new law, which goes into effect in September, prohibits zero-tolerance policies that lead to automatic suspensions or expulsions for certain behavior. Some types of discipline -- longer suspensions, expulsions and placement in an alternative school -- can only be used if a student's presence in class is a significant disruption or threat, or if administrators have already tried other disciplinary actions. Shorter suspensions can only be used if the student poses a threat or disruption.
The law also calls for training and the formation of parent-teacher advisory committees.
Attempts to limit suspensions and expulsions have at times been met with concern by parents and teachers. Last year, some parents complained to the District U46 school board in Elgin about punishments for bullies that one parent said avoided hurting the bully but allowed him to hurt other kids.
During contract negotiations in East Aurora, some teachers highlighted the "constant disruptions" in some classrooms and called for consistent discipline.
But Russell Skiba, who has researched school discipline and is co-director of the Equity Project at Indiana University, said efforts to limit suspensions and expulsions are gaining traction nationally. One of the biggest predictors of academic success is time spent learning, he said.
He said higher rates of suspension are tied to lower rates of student achievement, and zero-tolerance policies are often associated with racial and ethnic inequities.
But he said it would also be foolish to have a blanket ban on suspensions and expulsions.
"Whenever we say that we're going to reduce the use of exclusionary discipline because it's ineffective, the next immediate question has got to be what are we going to replace it with, and how are we going to be sure that we support schools in implementing those alternatives that we know can be effective," he said.
Districts like those in Aurora, Naperville and Elgin have already been working to reduce and replace exclusionary discipline.
The law is an extension of current efforts in Indian Prairie School District 204, which serves Naperville and Aurora, said Louis Lee, assistant superintendent for high school teaching and learning.
The law mostly will only require a change in the way the district documents student discipline, he said. The district will convene an advisory committee of staff and a variety of parents to review potential policy and student handbook changes.
In District U46, spokeswoman Mary Fergus said the law likely would not require huge changes from the district. The district began working to reduce suspensions and expulsions about eight years ago and has eliminated zero-tolerance policies, she said.
The district instead has been moving toward a philosophy that seeks to address ways the district can support a student through emotional distress or behavior issues.
"We'd want to keep students in school because the goal, of course, is graduation," she said.
Marti Neahring, director of student services for West Aurora School District 129, said every discipline situation in the district is assessed on a case-by-case basis. The district has not been using zero-tolerance policies, and the law would likely require mostly policy tweaks and changes in documentation, she said.
Neahring said the district has been working on its discipline policies for about five years, and expulsions are down. It's important to keep kids in class as much as possible, she said.
"We're seeing far too many kids on the street, not finishing school, increasing that school-to-prison pipeline," Neahring said. "That's never the plan. The plan is to educate children, graduate them and prepare them for what's next, whether that's secondary education or a career. But the goal should never be to remove a student from their education."
East Aurora is likely to see more changes as a result of the bill. In the past, the district hasn't always talked with parents about enforcement of zero-tolerance policies or why a student was receiving a type of discipline, Truckenbrod said.
Now the district is working to increase the opportunities for parents to have input in the discipline process. One of the biggest positives of the law is the chance to bring parents and teachers together, he said.
"There's just a lot of potential power in a conversation between parents and teachers," he said, "especially when we look at discipline practices and building trust, creating safe environments for our kids. Parents want to know that their child is safe, but they also want to know that they are being treated fairly."
The district will also be rethinking its discipline practices. For example, Truckenbrod said, students caught roaming the hallways or skipping class often receive detention. But then the student might skip detention and receive more severe punishments until finally being suspended.
Now, Truckenbrod said, the district will be working to identify whether there is a reason the student cannot make it to school. And when students struggle with classroom behavior, school officials must understand the root of the problem, he said.
Students who cause disruptions to the learning process or who pose a threat to themselves or others will not be exempt from suspension or expulsion, Truckenbrod said.
"When we look at these practices, we're only going to see an even safer school environment because of the transparency and the dialogue that we expect to have," he said.
But Indian Prairie officials had some concerns with the logistics of the law.
Lee said the training called for in the law is vague at points. Schools are required to provide teachers, administrators, school board members and other staff training on the consequences of excluding kids from school, classroom management, appropriate discipline methods and "culturally responsive" discipline, but Lee said the law doesn't give specifics on the training.
Board member Michael Raczak called the law another unfunded mandate, though he said it is good in theory.
"It's a paradigm shift, and it's more proactive," he said. "Yet restorative justice and some of the staff development are going to take maybe additional resources and money and time."
Sarah Freishtat is a Beacon-News reporter. Suzanne Baker is a Naperville Sun reporter.
sfreishtat@tribpub.com
subaker@tribpub.com
