Inside Look: Washington Student Discipline Webinar

Student discipline laws in Washington have changed over the past few years, and OSPI has created training to support all school and district staff who interact with students, including instructional staff and non-instructional staff.

Free and open to all, this webinar will be the first in a series of training opportunities around student discipline. This particular webinar takes place on Wednesday, October 11 from 3:30–4:30 p.m. PT.

Find the registration link here: bit.ly/disciplinewebinar. After attending this webinar, you should be able to:

• Identify beliefs and attitudes that align with the purpose of implementing a positive school discipline plan.
• Describe the difference between discipline practices that are reactive and discipline practices that are proactive.
• Explain the relationship between zero-tolerance discipline policies, punitive discipline practices, and disproportionality in discipline.
• Identify changes to consider in your own discipline policies and practices in accordance with WA laws.

One of the cornerstone elements of this training is to discuss positive school culture and the impact that every one in a school building has on students, showcasing video like “Every Opportunity,” linked below.

Every Opportunity, courtesy of the Atlanta Speech School.

The training also highlights the difference between proactive and reactive practices in student discipline:

Proactive practices:

Preventing the behavior through:

• defining
• teaching
• modeling
• reinforcing appropriate behaviors
• using data to drive decisions

Reactive practices:

• a continuum of consequences that occur after the behavior:
• responding with reprimands
• withholding privileges
• or other forms of punishment

For a student’s view on exclusionary school discipline, see the video from the American Institute of Research linked below.

The students in this video discuss the negative consequences of harsh discipline that excludes them from school. The young people were part of a group of students who participated in a round-table on the topic hosted by the American Institutes for Research.

Changes in Washington State Discipline Laws

(2013) ESSB 5946: Student Discipline and Behavior

This law:

• Set time limits on exclusionary discipline practices and provided additional due process rights for students.
• Created Discipline Task Force to develop data collection and definition standards related to school discipline.
• Directed OSPI Data Governance to revise CEDARS to incorporate Task Force data collection standards.
• Made discipline data publically available through OSPI website.
• Included behavior in the scope of LAP and directed OSPI to create a menu of best practices for behavior.

Recent changes in Washington State laws. Example: Length of Exclusions.

The Learning Assistance Program & Menus

State law created state menus of best practices and strategies for ELA, math, and behavior. Districts look to the menus as a resource and the behavior menu is particularly useful for implementing changes related to student discipline: http://www.k12.wa.us/SSEO/BehaviorMenu.aspx. The work is guided by the Learning Assistance Program at OSPI.

The cover of the Behavior Menu of Best Practices and Strategies.

Menu Entries Organization:

• Student-Centered
• Educator-Focused
• Transition & Readiness
• Family & Community

New and Updated Menu Entries:

• Family Engagement
• Kindergarten Transitions
• Restorative Justice
• Trauma-Informed Approaches

Additional Sections:

• Multi-Tiered System of Supports
• Content Philosophy
• Implementation

For more information about the training and to register for the online webinar here: bit.ly/disciplinewebinar.