Ending Punitive School Discipline: Support Over Exclusion.
This act aims to reduce harsh disciplinary practices in schools, such as suspensions and expulsions, which often disproportionately affect minority students. It introduces new data collection requirements to better understand the issue. Additionally, it provides grants for schools to implement alternative, supportive methods instead of exclusionary discipline.
Key points
Schools will be required to collect and report detailed data on suspensions, expulsions, and other disciplinary actions, disaggregated by race, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and disability, to identify discriminatory practices.
The bill prohibits out-of-school suspensions and expulsions for students in preschool through 5th grade for non-serious incidents, and for all students for insubordination, profanity, truancy, or dress code violations.
Schools will receive grants for teacher training, mental health support programs, alternative conflict resolution methods, and creating safer learning environments, rather than hiring school police or installing surveillance equipment.
A joint task force will be established to study the impact of school discipline on the criminalization of girls of color, students with disabilities, and other groups, and to develop recommendations for best practices.
Expired
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