3241: Student Behavior, Corrective Actions and/or Interventions

Introduction/Philosophy/Purpose

The purpose of school corrective actions and/or interventions is to provide a safe environment that is conducive to learning for all students. Corrective actions and/or interventions should strive to keep students in class and maximize engagement and be restorative in nature, when possible and practicable, considering the duty to maintain safe and orderly school environments conducive to student learning.

The purposes of this policy and accompanying procedures include:

• Engaging with school personnel, students, parents/guardians, families and the community in decisions related to the development and implementation of discipline policies and procedures striving to understand and be responsive to cultural context;
• Supporting students in meeting behavioral expectations (general guidelines for school environments, school-supported activities and/or those that have a direct causal effect on the school environment), including providing for early involvement of parents/guardians;
• Administering corrective action and/or interventions (discipline) in ways that respond to the strengths and needs of students and keep students in the classroom to the maximum extent possible;
• Providing educational services that students need to complete their education with minimal disruption during suspension and expulsion;
• Facilitating collaboration between school personnel, students, and parents/guardians, to support s successful reentry into the classroom following a suspension or expulsion;
• Ensuring fairness, equity, and due process in the administration of discipline;
• Implementing culturally responsive corrective actions/interventions that provides every student with the opportunity to achieve personal and academic success, and
• Providing a safe environment for all students and for District employees.

Rights and Responsibilities

The District will observe students’ fundamental rights and will administer discipline in a manner that does not:

1. Unlawfully discriminate against a student on the basis of sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal;
2. Deprive a student of the student's constitutional right to freedom of speech and press, the constitutional right to peaceably assemble and to petition the government and its representatives for a redress of grievances, the constitutional right to the free exercise of religion and to have the student's school free from sectarian control or influence, subject to reasonable limitations upon the time, place, and manner of exercising the right;
3. Deprive a student of the student's constitutional right to be secure in the student's person, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures;
4. Unlawfully interfere in a student's pursuit of an education while in the custody of the school district; or
5. Deprive a student of the student's right to an equal educational opportunity, in whole or in part, by a school district without due process of law.

The Superintendent or Designee shall establish and make available rules of student conduct, designed to provide students with a safe, healthy, and educationally sound environment. Students are expected to be aware of and comply with the District’s rules of student conduct, including behavior standards that respect the rights, person, and property of others. Students and staff are expected to work together to develop a positive climate for learning. This includes, though is not limited to, the following behaviors:

• Engaging in open and honest dialogue,
• Being caring, displaying kindness and/or concern for others,
• Demonstrating compassion, feeling and/or showing sympathy or a willingness to help others,
• Acknowledging and respecting others, by listening, affirming, and serving,
• Respecting others by refraining from interfering and/or intruding on others’ personal space, property, and/or emotions,
• Engaging in positive and respectful communications and interactions,
• Complying with reasonable requests of staff,
• Demonstrating positive role modeling,
• Engaging in constructive problem solving, and
• Respecting differences in people, their ideas, and opinions.

All students are expected to follow the rules of the District. Refusal to comply with written rules and regulations established for the governing of the school will constitute sufficient cause for corrective actions, interventions, discipline, suspension and/or expulsion. Corrective action and/or interventions for misconduct must reflect good faith effort on the part of the staff, meaning what a reasonable person would determine is diligent and an honest attempt under the same set of facts or circumstances. “Discipline” means any action taken by the school District in response to behavioral violations. Discipline is not necessarily punitive, and can take positive and supportive forms, such as a written reflection, restorative conversation, re-teaching and collaborative problem solving. Data show that a supportive response to a behavioral violation is more effective and increases equitable educational opportunities. For persistent misconduct or exceptional misconduct, students will be referred to an appropriate school-level team to determine root causes and provide appropriate supports.

Minimizing exclusion, engaging with families, and supporting students

Unless a student’s presence poses an immediate and continuing danger to others or an immediate and continuing threat to the educational process, staff members must first attempt one or more forms of classroom management or corrective actions to support students in meeting behavioral expectations before imposing classroom exclusion or in-school suspension. Before imposing a long-term suspension or expulsion, the District must first consider other forms of corrective action, such as a restorative conversation, a drug and/or alcohol assessment, a mental health evaluation, and/or a referral to an outside agency.

The District’s use of suspension and expulsion will have a real and substantial relationship to the lawful maintenance and operation of the school District including, but not limited to, the preservation of the health and safety of students and employees and the preservation of an educational process that is conducive to learning. These other forms of discipline may involve the use of best practices and strategies included in the state menu for behavior developed under RCW 28A.165.035. The accompanying procedure will identify a list of other forms of corrective action for staff use. However, staff members are not restricted to that list and may use any other form of corrective action compliant with WAC 392-400-025(9), with the exception of short-term suspensions, as the Bellevue School District does not use short-term suspensions as a corrective action.

School personnel must make every reasonable attempt, meaning usual and/or rationale to the circumstances, to involve parents/guardians and students to resolve behavioral violations. The District must ensure that associated notices, hearings, conferences, meetings, plans, proceedings, agreements, petitions, and decisions are in a language the student and parents/guardians understand; this may require language assistance. Language assistance includes oral and written communication and further includes assistance to understand written communication, regardless of the parents’/guardians’ reading proficiency.

As described in the procedures, the District will offer educational services to students during in-school and/or long-term suspensions or expulsions. When the District administers a long-term suspension or expulsion, the District will timely hold a reengagement meeting and collaborate with parents/guardians and the student to develop a reengagement plan that is tailored to the student’s individual circumstances, in order to return the student to school successfully. Additionally, any student who has been suspended or expelled may apply for readmission at any time.

Authority to hear and decide appeals of disciplinary grievances, of long-term suspensions, of expulsions, and of emergency removals which would otherwise be heard by the Board of Directors, is delegated to a school District Discipline Appeal Council (DAC) which will consist of five seats appointed by the Board in accordance with WAC 392-400. At least three members of the Council must be present to conduct hearings. Members of the Council will serve for one year each and may be reappointed to serve subsequent terms. Appointments of administrators and their alternates will be made by the second board meeting in September each year, and appointments of remaining members and their alternates will be made at the first regular Board meeting in December. During the 2019-2020 school year, the first year of inclusion of alternates, the appointments of alternate will be made at the Board meeting during which Policy revisions for 3241 are approved.

Discipline Appeal Council members will include:

• One secondary certificated administrator and one or more, alternates.
• One administrative representative affiliated with the District’s Equity, Community Engagement, and/or Community Development department(s) and an alternate.
• One representative of the Parent Teacher Student Association and one, or more, alternates.
• One School Board member and one, or more, alternates.
• One seat for the Executive Directors of Schools, Principal Supervisor, or equivalent. This seat will be divided among multiple administrators such that the administrator participating in a specific appeals hearing is not the supervisor of the administrator who imposed the discipline that is being appealed.

The chair of the Discipline Appeal Council will be the Executive Director of Schools or equivalent. Alternates will be invited to serve on the Discipline Appeal Council when the primary representative is unable to attend. The Superintendent/or designee will work to create avenues to have a diverse array of candidates considered for membership of the Discipline Appeal Council.

Staff authority

District staff members are responsible for supervising students during the school day, during school activities, whether on or off campus, and on the school bus. Staff members will seek early involvement of parents/guardians in efforts to support students in meeting behavioral expectations. The Superintendent /or designee has general authority to administer discipline, including all exclusionary discipline. The Superintendent /or designee will identify other staff members to whom the Superintendent /or designee has designated disciplinary authority. After attempting at least one other form of corrective action, teachers have statutory authority to impose classroom exclusion for behaviors that disrupt the educational process. Because perceptions of subjective behaviors vary and include explicit, implicit, and/or unconscious biases, the accompanying procedures will seek to identify the types of behaviors for which the identified District staff may administer corrective action.

Ensuring fairness, providing notice, and an opportunity for hearing

When administering discipline, the District will observe all the student’s constitutional rights. The District will notify parents/guardians as soon as reasonably possible about repeated office referrals for disciplinary reasons, classroom exclusion and before administering any suspension or expulsion. The District will provide opportunities for parents’/guardians’ participation during an initial hearing with the student. The District will provide parents/guardians with written notice, consistent with WAC 392- 400-455, of a suspension or expulsion no later than one school business day following the initial hearing. As stated above, language assistance includes oral and written communication and further includes assistance to understand written communication, regardless of the parents’/guardians’ reading proficiency. The District has established procedures for review and appeal of suspensions, expulsions, and emergency removals, consistent with WAC 392-400-430 through 392-400-530. All other forms of discipline can be grieved under Policy 4220 and Procedure 4220P.

The District has also established procedures to address grievances of parents/guardians or students related to other forms of discipline, classroom exclusion, and exclusion from transportation or extracurricular activity. The grievance procedures include an opportunity for the student to share his or her perspective and explanation regarding the behavioral violation.

Development and Review

Accurate and complete reporting of all disciplinary actions, including the associated student-level information that result in a classroom exclusion, in- school suspension, long-term suspension, emergency removals, and/or expulsion, including the behavioral violations that led to them, is essential for effective review of this policy; therefore, the District will ensure the reporting of such.

The District will periodically, at least annually, collect and review data on disciplinary actions taken in each school as related to a classroom exclusion, in-school suspension, long-term suspension, Emergency Removals, and/or expulsion to determine if the disciplinary approaches are effective in helping students and identify areas of disproportionality. The data will be disaggregated into subgroups as required by RCW 28A.300.042, including students who qualify for special education services or Section 504. The data will be reported to the Board annually. If disproportionality is found the District will take action to ensure that it is not the result of discrimination and may update this policy and/or procedure to improve fairness and equity regarding corrective action. Both disproportionality and lack of effectiveness will trigger review of this policy and/or accompanying procedures.

The District will periodically review and further develop this policy and procedure with the participation of school personnel, students, parents, families, and the community. As part of this development and review process, the district will use disaggregated data collected under RCW 28A.300.042 to monitor the impact of student discipline practices as well as to improve fairness and equity in the administration of student discipline. Discipline data must be disaggregated by:

1. School.
2. Student groups, including by gender, grade level, race/ethnicity (including further disaggregation of federal race and ethnicity categories in accordance with RCW 28A.300.042(1) and CEDARS Appendices Y and Z), low-income, English language learner, migrant, special education, Section 504, foster care, and homeless.
3. Behavioral violation.
4. Discipline types, including classroom exclusion, in-school suspension, short-term suspension, long-term suspension, Emergency Removals, and expulsion.

Distribution of policies and procedures

The school District will make the current version of this policy and procedures available to families and the community. The District will notify parents/guardians as soon as reasonably possible about repeated office referrals for disciplinary reasons and/or classroom exclusions. Corrective action will be outlined clearly in communication(s) with students and parents/guardians, Procedures will include, but not be limited to:

1. Timelines related to corrective actions
2. Appeal rights
3. Hearing processes

The District will annually provide its discipline policies and procedures to all District personnel, students, parents/guardians, and community which may require language assistance for students and parents/guardians with limited-English proficiency under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The school District will ensure District employees, and contractors are knowledgeable of this student discipline policy and procedures. Staff will receive annual training on the school District’s policy and procedure, including, but not limited to, staff roles and responsibilities. Staff responsible for facilitating and/or conducting investigations will receive annual training on investigations. If during the course of an investigation, the district employee conducting the investigation becomes aware of a potential violation of the District’s Nondiscrimination Board Policy 3210, the investigator will promptly notify the District’s civil rights’ compliance officer.

If during the course of an investigation, the district employee conducting the investigation becomes aware of a potential violation of the District’s Sexual Harassment Board Policy 3205, the investigator will promptly notify the District’s civil rights’ compliance officer. If during the course of an investigation, the district employee conducting the investigation becomes aware of a potential violation of the district’s Section 504 Board Policy 2162, the investigator will promptly notify the Section 504 compliance officer. All staff members will intervene when witnessing or receiving reports of misconduct or exceptional misconduct.

All staff are required to notify the applicable building administrator in writing of observed incidents of exceptional misconduct. The administrator in receipt of that allegation of exceptional misconduct will ensure an investigation is conducted.

Students, parents/guardians, and/or staff who report incidents that may rise to the level of exceptional misconduct will be provided written notice of the applicable policy and/or procedure governing next steps. Each of these allegations will be investigated adhering to the District’s investigative protocols. Upon completion of the investigation, the students, parents/guardians, and/or staff who reported the alleged incident will be notified in writing that the investigation is complete and proper follow up has occurred with applicable parties, as warranted, while ensuring the privacy rights of students are protected.

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Cross References

• Board Policy 2121 Substance Abuse Program
• 2161 Special Education and Related Services for Eligible Students
• 2162 Education of Students With Disabilities Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Student Records
• 3122 Excused and Unexcused Absences
• 3200 Rights and Responsibilities
• 3205 Prohibition of Sexual Harassment – Students
• 3207 Prohibition of Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying