Related Link: Recent Accomplishments

Keep Kids in School: Improving School Discipline

For 3 years now, Connecticut has urged school districts to redirect their disciplinary procedures and policies away from out-of-school suspension and expulsion and toward in-school suspension. The state first passed a law in 2007 requiring districts to use in-school suspension for the vast majority of disciplinary infractions, but its implementation was delayed until July 1, 2010. Impressively, many districts have already begun making progress in this direction. But there are vast differences between multi-day detention lacking much academic instruction and successful in-school combinations of instruction, mentoring and counseling for those disciplined.

Connecticut Appleseed released preliminary findings (Keep Kids in School: Improving School Discipline) in February, 2010 that offered a sampling of "best practices" in school discipline based on extensive interviews in 9 diverse Connecticut school districts. Connecticut Voices for Children produced a report on June 3, 2010 publicizing 2008-2009 disciplinary data from across the state that documents improvement in many districts and brings forward some additional best practices.

Report to be Issued in Late 2010

After analyzing the results of our interviews from school district officials and teachers, we will develop a final report with our findings and distribute it to districts and education officials throughout the state. Our November 30, 2010 report will highlight best practices and model school policies within school districts that should be considered statewide for possible implementation and feature the latest disciplinary data from the Connecticut Department of Education for the 2009-2010 school year. It will also feature findings from a youth focus group and a webinar sponsored by CT Parent Power to help ensure that our report reflects the perspective of those most affected by school discipline Ð parents, families and youth.