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August 28, 2012

Disciplinary code revisions could reduce student suspensions

by Rachel Cromidas, at 3:11 pm

The Department of Education has revised portions of its disciplinary code to make consequences for poor behavior less strict for the youngest students.

The revisions were made after a heated public hearing and several months of lobbying from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and Councilman Robert Jackson, the chair of the council’s education committee. They include the elimination of a type of suspension known as the “superintendent’s suspension,” which requires students to miss six to ten days of school, for students in Kindergarten through third grade who have committed low to mid-level disciplinary infractions.

The second change heralded by the council members was the addition of a strategy for teachers to use to deal with early behavioral problems that calls for a conference with the student, his or her parents, and a social worker. During the conference, the adults would help the student develop an “individual behavior contract” where they will lay out goals for improved behavior and tasks the student should meet to reach those goals.

Jackson said in a statement that he and Quinn pushed for the changes because young elementary school students who miss school are at risk of struggling academically in later years.

“Providing guidance based interventions and eliminating overly harsh punishments for children in the critical grades of K-3, will foster positive behavior and encourage the developmental growth of our students,” he said.

At a hearing in June, officials said they would reduce the penalties for minor behavioral problems and introduce more student-teacher conferences as alternatives to suspension. In the 2010-2011 school year, the department gave out more than 73,400 suspensions to students—a figure that was revealed through the Student Safety Act, a law the City Council passed last year to require transparency about discipline in city schools.

“New York City’s schools have relied too heavily on suspension as away to address misbehavior,” Quinn said in a statement.

Department spokeswoman Marge Feinberg said that the changes were made to address the concerns of “stakeholders,” per a state requirement, and to provide alternatives to suspensions for “low-level” problems.

“Because they are low level infractions, we believe a more progressive discipline is warranted with strong counseling and youth development support,” she said in an email. “We want to be able to address improper behavior before it reaches a higher level, and to do that we are focused on providing strong student support services coupled with parent involvement.”

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  • Teacher

    Let’s put Quinn in the classroom.

  • Twocents

    Suspensions are fairly worthless anyway. The student comes back the same. Bad parenting, I guess.

  • Anonymous

    The eternal question. Real reformers would tackle it, not exacerbate it.

    What to do about deeply disaffected youth? Engaging lessons? Not likely.
    These students need a reason to believe in the system they’re in and they need to see a light ahead that is promising and accessible. Structural change at a societal level is probably necessary but it can certainly begin and be inspired in schools. Business, industry needs to enter this game in a different way than founding charters, which is questionable and not a large-scale solution. Well, that’s my knee-jerk analysis, at least.

  • Ellen

    Ya gotta give them props for responding and recognizing that some of the responses for the infractions were excessive.
    Better training for security people, more guidance counselors with good skills and experience at the high school level, more interaction with the parents, who are sometimes over-whelmed and, yes, often not responsive.
    Proactive APs and Deans of discipline

  • Guest

    Well, isn’t it nice that Quinn and Jackson are supporting this new discipline code.
    I wonder how they would feel if a student cursed them out or threatened to “F” them up or even punched them. These 2 BS artists would be screaming for police. I challenge the 2 of you to spend a month in anyone’s class, then you would have some credibility. Until then you 2 are nothing more than loudmouth cowards. Stay out of education.

  • BK

    Haaaaaa. This is what you call liberalism at its best!! Which of course means worst

  • T5yuir

    I have said this many many times ut no one is listening. It is time to put cameras and audio equipment in the classroom.

  • Jfarrell

    We have these conferences in my school in the Bronx. It really does not work unless the parent is aligned with the school and sincere about the education and development of their child. Most of the time nothing happens and the child is allowed to do what ever he or she wants. They do not learn and they prevent the other students from learning. The teacher is blamed.

  • Coacheagle22

    we need teachers in classrooms that can handle the kids…plain and simple

  • Teach22

    C’mon Coacheagle22….

    The classroom is waiting for you….plain and simple.

  • HS Biology Teacher

    This is going to be a field day for schools were discipline problems are already ignored and swept under the rug (i.e., places where Level 4 infractions get written up as Level 2 infractions) to deflate the suspension numbers.

  • Ellen

     Then it doesn’t change a thing for you.  Schools such as those need more and better interventions for the leadership and an honest accounting of the activities at the school.  No one can be helped if the problem is ignored. 

  • Asiseeit

    “Schools such as those” are most public schools in NYC.

  • BK

     Any coach that does not understand discipline is not a very good coach.

  • http://twitter.com/nuffswaid nuff said

    amazing just as they are mainstreaming special ed and ell’s into general ed classes and upping the class size they are reducing the disciplinary code. Hmm- now they can claim less suspensions so no adverse effects of increasing class sizes and more inclusion classes–Voila-just change the rules and declare success—-unbelievable

  • Roma Giudetti

    Ellen, I agree with everything you’ve written except that it never happens.  What happens is that the most disruptive kids remain in the classroom disrupting instruction for other kids. When I worked in the Bronx I always felt sorry for the kids who pulled themselves out of bed each day to get to school on time – only to have their classroom instruction interrupted by kids who couldn’t bother to bring a pen or pencil, refused to follow any classroom instructions, talked incessantly throughout the lesson so that I either had to ignore them and soldier on so we could have some semblance of a class or interrupt class constantly to ask them to please be quiet.  No one thinks or cares about the kids who try hard to get an education despite terrible conditions and other kids who disrupt their learning.  Some things a teacher can deal with – for example I always tried to have a bucket full of pens (with the caps off or the caps get thrown around the room).  Other issues were too difficult and I wasn’t trained to handle them.  I often said when I worked in the Bronx, I was a mom, a guidance counselor, a psychologist and now and then a teacher.

  • Lomanshirerr

    I love reading the ridiculous comments from the cry babies who love to vent on here. HEY, NOBODY CARES!! GET OVER IT! Take your 100K and shut up already!!!!!!

  • Pogue

     Spoken like a graduate of the Chris Christie Oratory Academy.

  • Truthreigns

    It takes a master’s degree plus 30 additional college-level credits plus 22 years of teaching to reach 100K. And the problem is that the DOE is trying everything possible to get rid of you if you do earn 100K. So it’s a bit double-edged.

  • BloombergSucks

    First of all, I sincerely doubt you can read.  Second, not all teachers are making 100K.  Third, most of us don’t care.  It’s the whiny parents and loudmouths, such as yourself, who care when a brat gets what they deserve.
    I say, eliminate the discipline code entirely and allow teachers to wallop the stuffing out of the first two misbehaving students each year.  Guaranteed no problems after that.  Oh, and maybe throw in their parents for good measure.

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    I’m “liking” this exclusively on style points.

  • guess

    Exactly.  I take mine every year!  With per session I actually take 118K-120K and I never complain, I just laugh.

  • CannabalL

    e

    hey lomanshirerr. What’s is your profession, and what do make. I have been
    teaching for 38 years and will retire this year. My pension will be 94k, plus I will get 50k for my sick days. I will collect social security for another 22k. The interest on my TDA at 7% will add another 63k a year and my medical benefites are probably worth another 10k at least. I should be able to afford to voice my comments. If when you retire you need a job you can always come work for me at my beach house in lido, I might even let you polish my vet. Until you walk a day in my shoes shut the “F” up.

     

     

  • Coacheagle22

    I understand the need for discipline and I also understand that we need an alternative to suspensions. Administrators really need to begin hiring the best match for the students they serve. 

    I believe that the changes in the discipline code will force administrators to come up with creative ways to discipline without disenfranchising minority students. 

  • Limpia

    I think parents, home life are a large part. Also, I think due to testing and teaching to the test at the grade level, with no slower class with less difficult work,kids act out because it’s too hard for them, ofttimes. Just look at the numbers of kids with low test grades in reading.The boys especially don’t wanna even try because they see they don’t have the vocab,critical thinking skills that are required. They might get there eventually but they need a slower pace and affirmation. OTherwise, they are not being really taught, and that is due to the system.

  • BloombergSucks

    What a FanTastic idea!! Truly revolutionary!! An idea whose time has come!!!!

    “Police in the Bronx are looking for a teenager who punched a city bus driver in the face earlier this month.”

  • someone who cares

    One big problem in the high school level is most of the kids who get suspended don’t even go to school anyway and if they do they cut class by either coming in late or leaving early. They don’t care about getting or losing more class time.

  • East Sider

    Few kids whose behavior warrents suspension in grades K-3 ever graduate from high school. In fact, experienced teachers in pre-K can identify kids who are tracking towards dropping out.  The “solution” was to refer the kid for special ed placement, not that the placement had any real impact.

    If there is an “answer” it may be in community schools, schools with onsite social services that can deal with the kid and the family.

    BTW, as an aside, the comments by some who call themselves teachers are grist for those who want to abolish tenure.

  • Kpsmove

    I am not sure but I believe this thread has been invaded by trolls. As far as discipline goes I personally have been biten and threatened with being shot by students but it is the world that they live in that produces such reaction. I believe that the full weight of discipline should befall any student who disrupts the atmosphere of learning and prevents others from learning. The contact the parents is a fine tool but if after two contacts or no call back the situation needs to be elevated to a Threat to learning environment status so they can do what they want with the code but at some point and time it needs to be enforced with out impartiality. 

  • Teachforlife

    The problem is….

    We are TEACHERS, not JAIL WARDENS. There’s only so much a teacher can do as far as discipline is concerned. Our job is to teach. Unfortunately, most our time/energy is spent trying to stop disruptive behavior. All it takes is ONE disruptive student to ruin an entire class. And the school system makes it virtually impossible to remove a trouble-maker. So the trouble-makers win.

  • BloombergSucks

    From an article on NY1:

    “Violence in city schools is on the rise.

    According to numbers released by the state, incidents of sexual assaults and serious fights jumped 50 percent since record keeping began in 2005.
    Data shows the 2010-2011 school years set record highs in several dubious categories, as assaults with serious injury and assaults involving a weapon more than doubled since 2009 and 2008, respectively.
    Cases of bullying as well as drug and alcohol possession also jumped.
    However, the number of students carrying weapons is on the decline.
    New York City education officials attributed the jump in incidents largely to better reporting by schools rather than a spike in violence.”

    Long Live the SPIN DOCTORS!!!

  • East Sider

    In classes side by side with similar kids one room behaves and the other disrupts … why?

  • Ellen

    In response to Assiseeit
    In your experience…how many schools have you been in to see this type of horror…20-30-40?  Do you really believe that all of the schools are that screwed up?  Are you talking across the board or only at one level? 

  • Ellen

    sorry…I meant Asiseeit

  • Time On Our Side

    Because they’re similar, but not mirror copies of one another.

  • Time On Our Side

    Can’t forget those who already “know” (and possibly mastered the content or close to it) and cannot handle their boredom in a more constructive manner appropriate in an academic setting.

  • Iteachdoyou

    “Similar kids”…. What’s that supposed to mean? If they’re similar and they’re trouble-makers, they’ll misbehave in both classes. Your argument is ridiculous. The trouble-makers misbehave in all their classes with all their teachers. You obviously don’t deal with children very much. And if you have children of your own, and they’re well-behaved and courteous, then God bless you.

  • Wheresthetruth

    What does any of that have to do with tenure? Your subconscious is leaking out.

  • Teacher22

    East Sider.  Where?  Upper East Side?  Do your kids go to private school?

  • someonewhocares

    Yes, I’ve had this problem repeatedly.  Before you go through all the steps, you get so aggravated you just give up.  It’s almost impossible sometimes to get parents to come up to the school.  All the while, the child is still tormenting your class.  I don’t care what anyone says, it’s not the teacher’s classroom management.  I can manage a classroom.  The trouble is managing individual behaviors.  Whenever I take seminars on classroom management, it’s the same thing.  Have routines set in place, have rules posted, reward positive behavior.  That still doesn’t do anything about all the texting, the cursing, throwing things, lateness, talking, putting heads down in class, asking repeatedly for the bathroom pass, and my all time favorite, coming to class stoned.  

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