CT Parent Power

During the summer of 2010, CT Parent Power, Connecticut Appleseed, and Connecticut Association for Human Services hosted a webinar on improving how schools deal with "troublesome" students.

The history of school discipline isn't pretty, but there are some changes underway that are improving the picture. Right now, our perspective as parents is crucial.

In the spring of 2010, our leaders in Hartford passed a new law tightening up when schools can impose "out of school suspensions." How well local school districts embrace that law depends on how much we as parents know and what we do with that knowledge.

Resources

Click below to watch a recorded version of our 53-minute 8/12/10 School Discipline Webinar.

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Right click this link to download this video file.

You may also view or download the webinar presentation with narration (in PDF format.)

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Connecticut Appleseed has released preliminary findings in a research project that looks at the connection between school discipline policies and the juvenile justice system. The full report, Keep Kids in School: Improving School Discipline, will be released in the Fall 2010.

Connecticut Voices for Children has also been a strong advocate of best practice alternatives to out-of-shool suspension. Voices has produced two helpful documents:

Teaching Discipline is based on interviews with over 40 educators in 20 school districts in Connecticut, as well experts in the field of school discipline. It documents 18 alternatives to out-of-school suspensions that educators in Connecticut are currently using with success. It also explains Connecticut's 2007 suspension law (as amended in June 2010) in detail and documents the reduction in out-of-school suspension rates across Connecticut in recent years. The Appendix provides suspension rates by district for 2006-2007 and 2008-2009.

Missing Out provides detailed breakdowns of the data regarding suspension practice in Connecticut based on 2006-2007 and 2005-2006 data. It also explains in detail the research regarding the social costs of exclusionary disciplinary strategies.

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The Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) is a national coalition of policy advocates, parent and student organizers, educators and lawyers from around the country united to challenge the systemic problem of "pushout" in our nation's schools. Pushout happens when youth are removed (or remove themselves) from a regular school setting as a result of policies and practices that discourage them from remaining in classrooms and on track to receive a regular diploma.

The DSC advocates for the human right of every child to a quality education and to be treated with dignity, and promotes local and national alternatives to a culture of zero-tolerance, punishment and removal. The Dignity in Schools Campaign has created a model school code that offers a framework based on four fundamental human rights principles: the Right to Education, Right to Dignity, Right to Participation and Freedom from Discrimination.