On February 27, 2007, CADRE celebrated our first policy victory in our Right to Education Campaign with LAUSD's passage of a new districtwide student discipline policy that is based on positive behavior support and preventive discipline rather than over-punishment and arbitrary removals of children from their learning environments. LAUSD's new policy makes it one of the most comprehensive and progressive in the nation.
Through a persistent presence and the mobilization of over a hundred allies from Los Angeles and around the country, CADRE cast a very public spotlight on the Board's debate over this new policy. Key to ensuring the policy's passage was our success in framing school discipline as pushout and the policy as a child-centered rather than adult-driven solution. We need more education and less suspension.
The new policy is entitled, “Discipline Foundation Policy: School-wide Positive Behavior Support”. Using "positive behavior support "as its foundation, LAUSD’s policy is structured so that all district schools will have the support and tools to implement tailored, site-based discipline plans that include the following strategies:
All LAUSD students, regardless of which school they attend, should now be able to receive more support when their behavior interferes with their learning. In other words, the policy creates the opportunity and expectation that behavior problems will be prevented, identified earlier, and resolved as much as possible without removing students from classrooms or the school, through suspensions or any other means. The policy also requires schools to involve parents much earlier when behavior problems start and do not improve, in order to avoid more serious consequences. Children at every school will have more support to stay in school and learn.
As this policy is implemented, over time it has the leverage to make schools more welcoming, positive, supportive of children and parents, and focused on keeping all students in school so that they graduate. Changing discipline policy is like changing the environment in a school and how everyone treats each other, children AND adults. Although the discipline policy deals mainly with student behavior, it will also encourage teachers and administrators to work with parents, to improve the quality of teaching and learning and to deal with conflict in a more productive manner. And, there will be the tools and data to hold everyone accountable for doing so.
This is a watershed moment in LAUSD. In an era of escalating criminalization of youth, people of color and families with the lowest incomes, more and more students are being labeled “disruptive” and removed from schools. Under the auspices of “school discipline” and “school safety,” removal of students from classrooms and schools is often the punishment of first resort.
In the face of public pressure to intensify zero-tolerance practices rather than focus on prevention and supportive intervention, LAUSD’s adoption of this new policy is a significant step towards educational justice, especially in low-income communities of color. CADRE knows that the work is not done: the policy will only be as strong as its implementation and the community’s participation in and monitoring of it.
Please visit Our Library for the complete story behind our Right to Education campaign victory, "A Parent-Led Victory in the Fight to End Pushout in Los Angeles Schools", under Organizational Documents & Fact Sheets.
Copies of the new LAUSD policy are also available in Our Library under Related Policies & Research.
For more information on "positive behavior support", please visit http://www.pbis.org/.
