Schools should be spaces where students feel safe and welcome, actively engage with learning, and strive for success. Discipline policies and practices should reinforce these values, particularly safety and belonging. Unfortunately, ineffective discipline practices that punish students harshly and take them away from the classroom -- like…

The use of exclusionary discipline practices in schools has been well documented since the 1970s with the passing of the Safe Schools Act and implementation of zero-tolerance policies. Despite research indicating the ineffectiveness of exclusionary practices, students continue to receive suspensions and expulsions at alarming rates. Additional…

The school-to-prison pipeline is a national concern, from the federal to local governments, and a leading topic in conversations in the field of urban education and juvenile justice. "From Education to Incarceration: Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline" is a ground-breaking book that exposes the school system's direct relationship…

Special educators frequently teach students with a variety of diagnostic labels, including autism and oppositional defiant disorder. Some of these diagnoses point to the presence of challenging behaviors that might be viewed as threatening and disruptive. Teachers working with these students must make daily choices in how they approach such…

For over a century, teachers, parents, and school leaders have lamented a loss of "discipline" in classrooms. Caught between guidance approaches on the one hand and a call for zero tolerance on the other, current debates rarely venture beyond the terrain of implementation strategies. This book aims to reinvigorate thinking on "discipline" in…

The public school administrator is responsible for protecting student expression while maintaining the integrity of the school disciplinary practices. When dealing with violent writing by students, school administrators should be aware of governing legal principles as well as sound educational practices. A review of legal and educational…

Since the 1980's, fear of school violence has driven American public education toward increasingly punitive and exclusionary methods of school discipline. Yet recent research has begun to raise serious questions about the effectiveness and equity of suspension and expulsion. Despite such controversy concerning the use and effectiveness of…

The present study examined how public school administrators negotiate discipline policies that are intended to protect the common good and the educational rights of students with disabilities. We investigated the political nature of these decisions and the strategies used in reaching them through interviews with administrators in 9 public high…

In its landmark decision in "Goss v. Lopez" (1975), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that for a suspension of 10 days or fewer, public school officials must provide the student with at least the following minimum of procedural protection on the basis of the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause: oral (or written) notice of the charges…

A former elementary school principal describes the challenges she faced and outcomes that resulted and lessons learned as she worked to create safe, respectful schools for students and adults of all sexual orientations. (Contains 1 note.)

This legal primer on violence in schools addresses the responsibility of school officials to respond to undisciplined youths whose behavior threatens the welfare and safety of other children in attendance. It is broken down into sections that provide a brief overview of the key rules and guidelines for school officials and teachers in each topic…

Schools are taking many different steps to prevent violence, among them improving relationships with students and building on the relationship with local law enforcement. A comprehensive strategy should definitely include a good crisis plan. All school personnel should know what the plan says as well as their roles in implementation. One sidebar…

Fifty years after "Brown v Board of Education" inequalities in public education are evident in the disproportionate numbers of Black and Latino students who are held back, often do not graduate from high school, or are removed from school by unforgiving zero tolerance discipline policies. The National Center for Educational Statistics…

In this book, the author offers the best ideas and most workable discipline practices from more than 1,000 school leaders. The book is loaded with updates and gives administrators all the tools they need to create a safe environment, from dealing effectively with the 5% of students who take up 90% of their time, to creating a positive public image…