Ending Student Exclusion: New School Discipline Rules
This Act aims to reduce harsh school disciplinary practices like suspensions and expulsions, especially for minority students. It introduces new data collection requirements on discipline and funds programs to foster positive school environments, allowing students to focus on learning rather than punishment.
Key points
Schools must collect and report detailed data on suspensions, expulsions, and other disciplinary actions, disaggregated by gender, race, origin, socioeconomic status, and disability, to identify and combat discrimination.
The Act prohibits out-of-school suspension or expulsion for preschool through 5th-grade students for non-serious incidents, and bans corporal punishment, seclusion, and certain physical restraints for all students.
Grants will be available for schools to fund teacher training, mental health support programs, alternative conflict resolution methods, and hiring specialists, rather than relying on school police.
A joint task force will be established to study the causes of school pushout for girls of color and develop recommendations to prevent their exclusion from the education system.
Introduced
Citizen Poll