Research has suggested that students from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds (e.g., students of color and those with disabilities) have received higher rates of exclusionary discipline (e.g., suspensions and expulsions) than their peers who are White and without disability. Various interventions have been implemented to address this…

The author presents the concept of natality for consideration in terms of pastoral care and educational purpose. The discussion identifies significant threats to the future for pastoral care in schools, including the Global Educational Reform Movement and the increasing emphasis on teachers taking charge of discipline in the classroom, at the…

What evidence supports the call for discipline reform? How might alternative strategies affect students and schools? In this article, the authors describe the critiques of exclusionary discipline and then examine the research base on which discipline policy reform rests. They also describe the alternative approaches that are gaining traction in…

In this article, the authors trace the course of school discipline over the past 20 years and examine the status of school discipline reform today. They begin with an examination of zero-tolerance, suspension, and expulsion policies, as well as their assumptions and effects. They discuss alternatives that have been proposed and the guidance that…

This chapter tells the story of how and why one student who received a ticket for being late to school joined the fight against policies that criminalize students in Los Angeles Unified School District.

The purpose of this "From the Field" article is to share the tentative results of community-engaged research investigating the impact of Restorative Justice Discipline Practices on persistent discipline gaps in terms of race, gender, and special education identification.

This article discusses how Christopher Martin, a middle school science teacher in Denver, Colorado, finds success using restorative approaches that focus on empathy rather than punitive zero-tolerance school discipline policies. Upon reflection of his first school's discipline policy, he realized that the school operated out of fear and compliance…

Our purpose herein is to demonstrate how restorative justice continues to unfold globally and we explain how the use of a restorative justice ideology and intervention leads to a common alternative, not only in criminal justice institutions, but also within social agencies, such as elementary schools, and the related social support systems. We…

The PASSAGE (Positive and Safe Schools Advancing Greater Equity) initiative in Chicago brought together representatives from Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the parent organizing group COFI (Community Organizing and Family Issues), and the youth education organizing group VOYCE (Voices of Youth in Chicago Education), facilitated by the Annenberg…

In urban school districts across the USA there are mandates to implement zero tolerance policies. As this occurs, there is an increasing number of students, specifically students of colour, who are being jettisoned out of the educative process. When school principals have little autonomy regarding how they handle disciplinary infractions within…

One frequently held assumption found within the school discipline literature suggests that students of color- particularly African American, male, low-income populations- are at an increased risk of receiving exclusionary discipline sanctions. Aside from race, gender, and socioeconomic status; however, less is known about other factors that…