Monfredo: Grant to Look at Ways of Reducing School Suspensions

Saturday, January 31, 2015

John Monfredo, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

The wheels of progress move slowly but they are moving for just recently there was a press conference that addressed the issue of school suspensions. Two years ago at a January School Committee meeting I brought up the possible abuse of school suspensions in our school system that needed to be discussed.

At that time based on the UCLA Civil Rights research it appeared that Worcester had one of the highest rates of suspensions in the state and our rate was exceptionally high especially within the Latino population.

In addition, by law we needed to address this issue for Governor Deval Patrick, in the fall of 2012, signed into law a new school discipline policy. Its intent was to reduce unnecessary school suspensions and expulsions and to ensure that all students have access to educational services. Many students who are suspended are at risk due to a variety of factors ranging from stress at home, emotional difficulties or a learning disability. Sending these students out of the school in many cases compounds the problem as they are not receiving the help they need either academically, emotionally or in the form of a school adjustment or guidance counselor.

I asked for our policy to be reviewed, look at the reasons for the suspensions and that we assess one of the MTA’s press releases of recommendations from teachers about narrowing the achievement gap using some of their ideas on suspensions to see if it makes sense.

According to MTA the thought was to reduce student suspensions to all but the most egregious offenses, end zero-tolerance policies, create supervised spaces within the schools where students can refocus rather than being sent to the office, and develop programs that reward positive behavior as we do now in Worcester with our PBIS programs.

School suspensions and expulsions may seem to be an effective discipline method for severe and ongoing school disciplinary problems. However, these methods often create unforeseen problems, especially if they are applied in a zero-tolerance setting. In a policy statement, “Out-of-School Suspension and Expulsion,” (published in the 2013 issue of Pediatrics). The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) does not support zero tolerance policies and recommends that student suspension or expulsion should be considered on a case-by-case basis. Research has demonstrated that students who experience out-of-school suspension and expulsion are 10 times more likely to drop out of high school than those who do not. Also, suspension and expulsion can often place the student back into the environment that led to the behavior problems. To prevent behavior problems from arising and reduce the use of suspensions, the Pediatric group recommends early identification of at risk children, and intervention before the problem occurs.

At the press conference held at the Worcester Public Schools John E. Durkin building at 20 Irving Street School Superintendent Dr. Melinda Boone stated, “Unless we deal with the root cause of suspensions we will consistently see a revolving door of actions and suspensions.” Thus, this is what the Pediatric group suggested for school systems to look at the early causes of suspensions and come up with a plan. At the press conference it was announced that the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts will provide a grant to review data and help reduce the suspensions of students by providing emotional support for the students at five of the schools in Worcester. (Four elementary and one middle school… yet to be determined). According to Dr. Janice B. Yost, president of the Health Foundation, the $165,000 grant is for planning only. Additional money will follow from the foundation once a plan is in place. The money is to be used to bring forth a model worthy of further support. Other partners in this venture are the Worcester Educational Collaborative and the Latino Education Institute.

Dr. Jennifer Davis Carey, WEC Executive Director, is hopeful that this effort will look to reduce suspensions by better teaching children the emotional skills they need to cope with difficult situations in their homes and communities. The idea is to assist the student in becoming emotionally resilient.

The grant called Worcester-HEARS (Worcester’s Healthy Environment and Resilience in Schools) is mainly focused on elementary school students. The grant will be used to hire a project coordinator, schools will be selected based on the data, and a plan will be developed within those schools.

This partnership within the community certainly is welcome news and long overdue. We need to find out what causes are associated with the suspensions and come up with a long and short term plan. In addition, could we consider alternatives for the less egregious offenses such as in-school suspension, after-school detention, Saturday detention and out-of-school detention in places where students are still required to show up every day and continue their schoolwork? All these arrangements have the advantage that educators can still keep track of the students and monitor their progress. Simply leaving them up to their own devices only increases the chances they will get into trouble. Also, let’s not forget the human factor. Let’s encourage a caring relationship between students and teachers and have a mentor, tutor or a buddy to assist those students identified as “at risk.” In so many cases those suspended students have not been successful in school due to low self-esteem and the frustrations of not succeeding have been “turned” off to school. Studies have shown that having at least one positive adult role model in a young person’s life is an enormous protective factor. This in turn can help the individual succeed despite other risk factors such as poverty and a stressful home and community environment.

Involving the community is essential for everyone needs to be part of the solution and do whatever it takes to meet the needs of each individual student. Teachers can't help any of their students if those students aren't in school. Thus, the goals, as mentioned in the grant, should be to find ways to keep our students in school and to give our students the needed emotional and academic assistance. More on this important issue will be forthcoming so stay tuned. If you have any ideas on this topic let me know!