Citywide Discipline Policy - Anwatin! - Minneapolis Public Schools

Minneapolis Public Schools Citywide Discipline Policy (The full text of the Minneapolis Discipline Policy can be found at http://policy.mpls.k12.mn.us/5000_Students.html Policy 5200, Regulations 5200A, B, C and D) Goals, Values and Key Elements The goal of school discipline is to teach students to behave in ways that contribute to academic achievement and school success and to support a school environment where students and staff are responsible and respectful. Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) expects all students to be active learners and responsible members of their learning community. District staff, school administrators, teachers, other school staff, students and families share rights and responsibilities necessary for safe, orderly, well managed learning environments. The behavior of all members of the school community must honor the school as a place of teaching and learning. The MPS system of discipline is built on personal accountability, which is understood to mean: 1. Recognition that misbehavior damages relationships between the person or persons who misbehaved, the person harmed by the behavior, and the community as a whole, 2. Having an opportunity to repair harm done and restore relationships whenever possible, as opposed to exclusion, 3. Building personal responsibility by helping individuals develop internal control and motivation, and 4. Maintaining boundaries and limits that preserve the safety and integrity of individuals and the community. MPS recognizes that effective school discipline is critical to academic success and requires both high standards of behavior and a culture of acceptance as students are learning to meet them. Effective school discipline maximizes the amount of time students spend learning and minimizes the amount of time students cause disruption or are removed from their classrooms due to misbehavior. MPS sets benchmarks to assure accountability in this area. MPS is committed to teaching all students and to assuring that no student’s disruptive and/or dangerous behavior interferes with the learning of others. This is best accomplished by preventing misbehavior before it occurs and using effective interventions after it occurs. MPS articulates the following set of values and unbiased expectations to help meet these responsibilities and to balance the best interests of each MPS student with those of the school community as a whole. 1. Effective discipline can only occur in the context of a learning community with caring relationships. 2. Effective teaching requires engaging, differentiated curriculum, instruction and assessment designed to address the needs of our diverse learners. 3. Each school and classroom has clearly defined rules that are explicitly taught. All students are held to high standards of behavior. Students have input in the development of rules for their school and classrooms. 4. Effective discipline balances consistency with regard for the unique circumstances of the individual. 5. Effective discipline is based on research and experience. Data is an essential tool for planning and continuous improvement. It assists with problem identification, problem solving, and progress monitoring. 6. Effective discipline relies on evidence-based strategies and on an understanding of and responsiveness to the student’s culture, developmental stage and individual needs. 7. MPS acknowledges and strives to eliminate the institutional racism that presents barriers to success. In order to serve all students and to prepare them to be members of an increasingly diverse community, schools and staff must build cultural competence.

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All staff must hold themselves and each other to high standards of professional behavior. Discipline is most effective in an environment where staff members are positive role models for students.

These values and expectations have been developed into a framework of five key elements: 1. Quality Instruction

Quality instruction, delivered in a standards based learning environment is the foundation of effective discipline. When students are engaged in learning they are less likely to misbehave. Minneapolis Public Schools have adopted the Standards of Effective Instruction as a guide for teachers as they continually reflect on and improve their practice.

2. Caring Relationships and Teaching Expectations

Creating safe learning environments, engaging students in learning and teaching students the behaviors that are expected promote positive behavior and can prevent many of the misbehaviors that lead to dismissal and suspension. Schools must build on student strengths, including the strength that students bring from their cultures.

3. Use of Data for Problem Solving, Accountability and Continuous Improvement

All decisions in the district, including those regarding discipline, should be driven by data. Schools and staff are expected to use data to identify problems and successes and to inform practice. Schools are expected to record and review data on all out of class behavior referrals, suspension data, and results of student and staff climate surveys in order to broaden their understanding of discipline related issues and to identify and respond to problems earlier.

4. Continuum of Interventions for Misbehavior

Misbehavior ranges from very minor to very serious infractions. Misbehavior in school may disrupt teaching and learning, cause injury to oneself or others, damage property, or violate school rules or civil law. Similar misbehavior may have different causes in different situations. Therefore, schools must use a wide repertoire of responses to misbehavior to help students learn appropriate behavior, avoid repetition of similar incidents by the student involved or others, and maintain a safe learning environment.

5. Build Cultural Competence and Address Racism

In order to serve all students and to prepare them to be members of an increasingly diverse community, schools and staff must build cultural competence. With regard to discipline, staff are specifically expected to question the impact of their actions on African American male and Native American students and other groups that are over-represented among those students who are suspended. MPS expects that staff will use strategies to increase positive behavior for all students and to employ strategies that are known to be effective with students from African American, Native American, Latino, Hmong, Somali and other cultural communities.

Rights, Responsibilities and Roles In addition to shared rights and responsibilities, students, families, teachers, administrators, other school staff and district administration have unique roles and responsibilities in creating positive and safe environments.

Student Responsibilities: • Take responsibility for their behavior and hold themselves to high standards • Work to achieve at high levels • Come to school every day, on time, ready to learn • Follow school and classroom expectations and rules • Participate as members of the learning community • Treat teachers, administrators, staff, other students and themselves with respect • Help teachers and other students understand their culture and learn about and be respectful of the cultures of others • Comply with reasonable requests from school staff • Model positive behavior • Reinforce learning through homework or tutoring as needed • Talk to their families about school expectations and what they are learning in school • Share feedback on progress (grades, etc.) with family • Participate in problem solving for individual and school concerns Family Responsibilities: • Take responsibility for the behavior of their student as determined by law, community practice and school expectations • Participate in and support school activities • Help their student, teachers and other students understand their culture and learn about other cultures • Teach students to be respectful of others and reinforce school expectations • Model positive, respectful and appropriate school behavior. • Teach students that behavior has consequences • Encourage and praise their student’s achievements • Discuss feedback on progress with their student • Communicate with school staff to ensure that staff know and understand their student better and are better able to teach them effectively. • Share information and insights with school staff to help them teach their child • Review and discuss the Citywide Discipline Policy with your child. • Participate in problem solving for individual student and school concerns School Responsibilities: • Develop a school wide behavior plan with input from teachers, administrators, other staff, students and families. • Ensure that the behavior plan includes the six key areas of responsibility. • Support development of practices consistent with this policy • Formulate building procedures necessary to enforce this policy • Ensure that new teachers, administrators and other staff know and understand the school wide plan and regularly review the school plan with all staff. • Document participation in staff development activities • Review outcomes and modify plan, with particular attention to whether the school is reducing the disproportionate suspension of African American and Native American students. • Use defined strategies for building a sense of community in school, including forming relationships with all students and helping all members of the school community learn about and respect their own and each other’s culture. • Provide a clear process for addressing student concerns • Develop and use a system so that every student knows to whom they can go for help in the classroom and the school as a whole • Implement a defined system for teaching the expectations at the beginning of the school year and periodically throughout the year. Teach social skills to increase students’ repertoire of appropriate responses. • Ensure that the school is welcoming to families of all cultures and backgrounds • Communicate school expectations to families

• Inform families of both their student’s positive behavior and of behavior-related concerns. o families must be notified, in a language they understand:  When a student’s behavior is repeatedly disruptive or results in a significant amount of lost instruction time  By the end of the day or beginning of the following day in the case of suspension  In accordance with a student’s individual behavior plan. • Invite families to participate in problem solving and planning for their student. • Communicate with families whose students have been victimized at school. • Provide a continuum of interventions to address the needs of the student who misbehaved, those people directly affected by the behavior, and the school community as a whole. • Implement a system for documenting interventions used by individual staff and the school as a whole and their impact. • Identify how community partners will be involved with school discipline and in responses to behavior concerns. • Track the implementation of interventions to assure they are implemented as intended and to assess the degree of effectiveness. • Identify and use a process for resolving conflict • Identify procedures for temporarily removing a student from the classroom when necessary and for reteaching expectations • Identify procedures for re-entry when a student has been removed from class and / or suspended. Whenever possible a re-entry conference following a suspension should include any staff involved in the incident leading to the suspension, the student and his /.her parent / guardian. The conference should include a discussion of how to repair harm done. • Monitor behavior; including tracking the number of out of class behavior referrals and other office referrals, and number and length of suspensions. • Review data with staff and engage them in identifying patterns, problem solving, and using the data to inform practice, identify areas of need, including individual students who are struggling with behavior issues, classrooms and staff who need additional intervention or professional support, times and places where problems occur. • Ensure that teams of teachers and support staff provide interdisciplinary problem solving and to address identified needs • Involve students and families in problem solving for individual concerns • Solicit input from students and families about school climate and other concerns. Invite students and families to be involved in problem solving

District-wide Rules and Guidelines for Interventions In order to develop and maintain safe, orderly learning environments, MPS has established some specific rules consistent with basic expectations for safety, learning, respect and kindness and the roles and responsibilities. At all schools: 1. Students and staff are expected to dress in a manner appropriate to a professional learning community. 2. Students may not possess or use tobacco, alcohol or other drugs on school grounds or at school events, except American Indian Students may possess tobacco following the rules established by the Student Tobacco Use Policy, MPS Policy 5220. 3. Students may not carry electronic communication devices at school. These include, but are not limited, to pagers and cell phones. 4. No firearms or weapons are allowed on school grounds. 5. No fighting, threats or other forms of violence or other behavior that will disrupt the safety and learning of others. 6. Students are expected to comply with additional specific rules established by their school. 7. MPS has identified seven (7) sets of misbehavior that will always result in suspension, except for students with disabilities who will be dealt with pursuant to regulation 5200C. It is expected that

whenever a student is suspended, other interventions will be used as well. (see the chart for mandatory suspensions) Each school community has the right to establish additional rules necessary to support their school community and eliminate disruptive behavior. MPS recognizes that situations may arise that are not covered by these policies and procedures. MPS trusts the leadership of each school to make sound judgments in the best interest of individual students and the school as a whole. The principal retains the right to take appropriate action to ensure the safety of the school, its students and staff and to provide interventions and consequences that will help misbehaving students learn appropriate behavior. It is the principal’s responsibilities to seek other options and to use suspension judiciously in order to maximize the amount of time students are safely and productively in class. Consequences other than suspension may be used instead of or in addition to suspension. When suspension is used for non-mandatory suspensions, it may be either from the classroom or from the school. Interventions and consequences due to misbehavior should minimize the interruption of a student’s educational program. When choosing consequences, the staff will consider the following factors: 1. Balance overall school safety, providing consequences and offering help / support to the student and support to staff 2. Age and grade level of student 3. Degree of harm 4. Disability / special education status (see procedures for suspending students with disabilities) 5. Whether the incident is a first offense or a repeat offense 6. The impact of the incident on the overall school community 7. The willingness and ability of the student to repair the harm done If an Individual Behavior Intervention Plan exists, it may supersede the Citywide Discipline Policy procedures . When a five-day suspension is given, the time should be used to develop a re-admittance and Individual Behavior Intervention Plan or an alternate placement plan for the student. A plan is necessary to address extreme and / or chronic behavior. Schools should develop plans prior to or at the time of re-admittance. This may require a meeting with the student, family and others during the suspension or when pursuing expulsion or administrative transfer.