Problem behavior disrupts classrooms across the United States, impacting student learning. Despite the adverse consequences, teachers often exclude disruptive students from school as a punitive and default response to problem behavior. Alternatives to exclusion are becoming increasingly popular in many school districts to improve behavior and keep…

How should universities handle cases of student misconduct? While universities cannot make decisions about whether a criminal offence has been committed, they can judge whether there has been a breach of their own code of conduct. This guidance, building on a UUK and Pinsent Mason publication from 2016, sets out principles and practical case…

Neoliberalism, after decades of reform, continues to steer educational policies around the world. As private enterprise encroaches public education, schools are held accountable, tangled up in an internationally competitive culture of achieving benchmarks that meet technically managed standards. Not only is it academic performance that is audited…

The primary goal of the present mixed methods review is to systematically examine the available evidence for the effectiveness of different types of school-based interventions for reducing disciplinary school exclusion. Quantitative evidence will help to understand the overall size of the impact, as well as the factors that better explain it.…

This article is an interview with Carla Shalaby, coordinator of social justice initiatives and community internships at the University of Michigan, who advocates for a more humanizing approach to student discipline. Her research focuses on the critical role that students and teachers play in the ongoing struggle for justice. She is the author of…

This policy brief explores the growing concern around student behavior and school discipline, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exacerbated existing inequities and increased trauma for students and educators. It highlights the long-standing conflation of school safety and school discipline--distinct but often treated as…

State law (Revised Code of Washington [RCW] 28A.320.130) requires the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to annually report to the Legislature the number of incidents in violation of RCW 9.41.280, which involves the possession of weapons on school premises, transportation systems, or in areas of facilities while being used…

Behavior is a form of communication. For many young children, they may engage in certain behaviors to consciously or subconsciously communicate a need to access something, such as a desired adult or peer, sensory stimulation, or a tangible item. Other times, children may engage in a behavior to escape or avoid something, such as a particular…

As advocates for children and youth with exceptionalities, the members of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) are committed to ensuring a safe and positive climate in school and community settings. This requires elimination of any inherent biases school leaders, teachers, and other school personnel may hold and investing in policies and…

Concern about harsh and inequitable discipline over the past two decades has galvanized a host of discipline reforms. These reforms have gained renewed attention in recent months as both the COVID-19 pandemic and mass uprisings against anti-Black violence have both bolstered calls to reimagine schools as caring spaces. This moment raises urgent…

By being public entities, charter schools must meet U.S. federal legislative mandates (e.g., Section 504) in providing a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) to students with disabilities--just as their traditional district public school counterparts must do. This legal update reviews a prominent case, "Lawton et al. v. Success Academy…

Premack principle, often referred to as Grandma's law, describes how individuals will perform an arduous or undesirable activity if given access to a desirable activity after the completion of the original task. Premack discovered that highly preferred restricted activities in and of themselves can be reinforcing when preceded by activities that…

The school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) describes in shorthand the problematic relationship between some students' school experiences and their subsequent incarceration. One summer, in response to vocal concerned parents, a suburban school board adopted a zero-tolerance policy for smoking and vaping. Through the combined effects of the zero-tolerance…

This article reports on a critical policy analysis of discourses related to school exclusions. The management of problematic student behaviour is one of the intractable problems facing education systems today. Despite being ineffective, school suspensions and exclusions are commonly used in many countries as a discipline strategy to manage student…

Timeout has been used extensively within schools to address inappropriate behavior in children. In practice, timeout is not a single strategy; rather, it is a compilation of related practices. Some forms of timeout are research-based practices for modifying student behavior. However, others lack research support and frequently are misused,…