Violence by K-12 students is disturbingly common. Ensuring that schools have effective ways to identify and prevent such incidents is becoming increasingly important. Various concerning behaviors or disturbing communications, including direct threats, can precede acts of violence. Although removing every student exhibiting such behaviors might…

Topic: School-to-Prison Pipeline and the School Policing of African American Students. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the lived experience of teachers of African American pupils who are at risk of being moved into the School-to-Prison Pipeline. African American students are being dismissed from public school…

Pupils' behaviour can affect teacher morale, attrition, and exclusions. Teachers' efficacy beliefs can serve as a protective factor against stress and burnout. This study examined a possible association between teachers' collective efficacy (CE) beliefs and exclusion rates, and whether student-teacher relationships (STRs) affected CE beliefs and…

The overrepresentation of Black/African American students receiving exclusionary discipline in K-12 schools in the United States is a persistent problem that harms Black/African American students' academic outcomes, contributes to social emotional challenges, increases the likelihood of student dropouts, and fuels the school-to-prison pipeline.…

Exclusionary discipline in schools has disproportionately impacted Black students for decades. In 1975, just 21 years after the federally mandated desegregation of schools, the disparities in school discipline were documented as a nationwide problem. In the report of 2,862 school districts, Black students were being suspended at two to three times…

An increasing number of students in schools across America are being raised by grandparents. Multiple factors contribute to a child being removed from a biological parent's home and placed in custodial grandparent care. The increasing phenomenon of the grandfamily, and the instances that often lead to this new familial structure, may have…

Policies exist to regulate the use of restraint and seclusion so that they are only implemented when necessary and following appropriate standards and procedures. These policies often focus on students with disability. This qualitative study explored school leaders' understanding, use and perspectives of the Restraint and Seclusion Policy mandated…

School discipline is a significant educational policy and equity issue in K-12 education due to well-documented racial inequality in exclusionary discipline and the deleterious effects of exclusionary discipline on academic and adult outcomes. Drawing on interviews with district and school administrators and teachers in an…

The problem addressed by this study is that Hispanic students are disproportionately overrepresented in school discipline. The problem was addressed using a qualitative method and exploratory case study research design. Restorative justice was the conceptual framework that undergirded the study. This study added to the restorative justice…

For more than forty years, the United States' public education system's "zero-tolerance" policies, and disciplinary practices rooted in those policies, have negatively impacted and marginalized minority students far greater than the general student body population. Over the years, nationwide studies have identified complex multifaceted…

The school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) describes in shorthand the problematic relationship between some students' school experiences and their subsequent incarceration. One summer, in response to vocal concerned parents, a suburban school board adopted a zero-tolerance policy for smoking and vaping. Through the combined effects of the zero-tolerance…

This work examined the relationship between academic entitlement and noncompliance among college students using trauma or adverse childhood experiences to moderate the relationship. Additionally, this study explored how gender, enrollment type (full-time vs. part-time), and type of student (residential vs. online) impacted noncompliance. This…

Student misbehavior has long presented challenges to school teachers and leaders. Scholars have argued that the extent to which students comply with rules is linked to their perceptions that their school's rules and authority are fair. To understand one driver of noncompliance with school rules, this study asks: "What are students'…

Principals play a critical role in creating safe, inclusive, and equitable schools. Unfortunately, many schools maintain a legacy of exclusionary discipline and racial bias. In such contexts, principals can work collaboratively with school personnel and community members to interrogate existing policies, practices, and outcomes to inform…

Exclusionary discipline practices have a direct negative impact on individual students, schools, and society at large. To improve equity and cultural responsivity, active efforts to assess the contextual fit of effective strategies are necessary. The following study describes the Inclusive Skill-building Learning Approach (ISLA), an intervention…