While we know that the student’s actions and intent are at the heart of decision making when principals determine consequences. There can be so much more going on behind the school scene that impacts the decision.

As a behavior specialist, I support schools in creating their behavior systems, which includes how they will respond to disruptive behavior. There are the non-negotiable behaviors such as weapons, physical fighting resulting in harm, drugs. Principals have very little discretion with theses behaviors because of district policies and state laws. However, it is the gray areas where administrators in the same school district may greatly vary in how they provide discipline consequences. If school administrators rely primarily on student intent and motivation is when bias can creep into to decision making. The result is that students with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by office referrals and suspensions. In other words, the students most at risk of school failure are the ones that are removed the most from the learning environment. There may not be intentional, vindictive behavior on the part of school staff. But if the decisions are made unfairly against students in need of support, then something must be done to protect the student.

As parents, we need to know more than what is in the school handbook. The district’s Code of Conduct, 504 Accommodations Manual and Special Education Law should be available and applied to protect the rights of our children.

The next post will expand on this topic and give some ideas as to how schools shape their student discipline procedures.