Positive Models for discipline and school climate

Promoting Alternatives to Zero Tolerance

NESRI and the Dignity in Schools Campaign are promoting successful models for positive school discipline that reduce suspensions, improve learning and ensure the human right to education, including Positive Behavior Supports (PBS) and restorative practices.  PBS aims to prevent conflict and behavior problems, along with student suspensions and other extreme punishment, by making sure students understand what is expected of them and helping students meet those expectations. This approach provides assistance for students with chronic behavior problems and seeks to involve families and the community.  Restorative practices are a systemic approach to maintaining positive relationships and mutual respect that focuses on repairing the harm done to individuals and the community as a result of negative behavior rather than on punishing offenders. Restorative techniques hold students accountable for their behavior and engage students in developing effective responses to wrongdoing that repair harm and build a positive school community.

Federal Legislative Proposals

Positive Behavior for Effective Schools Act
In 2007 , Senators Barack Obama and Dick Durbin, and Representative Phil Hare, all from Illinois, introduced the Positive Behavior for Effective Schools Act in Congress which would make No Child Left Behind funds available for Positive Behavior Support programs and other efforts to create a positive school climate and reduce disciplinary problems.
Text of the bill in PDF or at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:S.2111:
Statement from Representative Hare

To contact the DSC to get involved in work related to the bill click here.

Websites

Illinois PBIS Network - http://www.pbisillinois.org/

National Technical Assistance Center on PBIS - http://www.pbis.org/main.htm

Southern Poverty Law Center - http://www.splcenter.org/legal/schoolhouse.jsp
Information on litigation settlements involving PBIS in Louisiana school districts.

Community Asset Development Re-Defining Education (CADRE) - http://www.cadre-la.org/article/9
Information on successful parent-led campaign to pass a PBS policy in Los Angeles. You can also read the LAUSD PBS policy passed on February 27, 2008

• Discipline Foundation Policy: School-wide Positive Behavior Support
• Attachments

DSC Database Articles on PBS - http://www.dignityinschools.org/resources.php?index=20&type=sub

SaferSanerSchools - http://www.safersanerschools.org/
A program of the International Institute for Restorative Practices

Padres & Jovenes Unidos - http://www.padresunidos.org/eni
In 2008, after a three-year campaign by Padres & Jovenes Unidos, the Denver Public Schools passed a new discipline policy incorporating restorative practices.

Chicago Public Schools Student Code of Conduct - http://policy.cps.k12.il.us/documents/705.5.pdf
In 2006, the Chicago Public Schools adopted a new discipline code incorporating restorative practices.

NESRI is a founding, core group member of the Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) a coalition of advocates, educators, organizers, and lawyers from across the country united to reframe the debate around school discipline from one that aims to punish and exclude children from school, to a human rights perspective that respects the child’s right to an education, and advocates for child-centered, dignified reform to keep children in school.  Our aim is to expose systemic problems in our nation’s school systems and provide solutions to end pushout and improve responses to school discipline.