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Volume III

“Changes in School Discipline”
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The Black Oak Mine Unified School District is unequivocally committed to maintaining safe, inviting, and comfortable school campuses for our students, staff, and families. Each of our school sites maintain Parent/Student Handbooks that describe precisely what schools expect of students and what students and parents can expect of their schools with respect to student discipline.

That being said, you are almost certainly aware that expectations and practices regarding school discipline have and continue to change in some fairly significant ways. Understandably, there is some resulting confusion. We want to use this Parent Education Series edition to provide some clarity.
 
As you may be aware, the California legislature recently passed a new law that limits the use of suspensions and expulsions in public schools. This law, known as the California School Discipline Reform Act, is intended to reduce the number of students who are removed from school for disciplinary reasons.

Under the new law, suspensions and expulsions can only be used in cases of serious misconduct, such as acts and threats of violence or possession of weapons. The law also requires that alternative forms of discipline, such as counseling and restorative justice, be used
in cases of minor misconduct. Additionally, the law prohibits the use of suspensions and expulsions for truancy, tardiness, or other minor  ffenses.

Prior to the pandemic, the BOMUSD was in Differentiated Assistance for our rate of student suspensions. Differentiated Assistance is the state-mandated process whereby school districts work with county offices of education to increase academic achievement through a Continuous
Improvement process. In this case, we were identified for Differentiated Assistance due to an excess number of student suspensions from school. Throughout the State of California, schools are required to find meaningful alternatives to student suspensions. The Black Oak Mine Unified School has worked to find meaningful alternatives to suspension.
 
That the Black Oak Mine Unified School District has determined alternatives to student suspension, this does NOT mean that we no longer suspend students from school. We can and do suspend and/or expel students from school for reasons already mentioned.

Research is clear that school suspensions are not an effective remedy for bad behavior - school suspension has always been of dubious merit. In many cases, it causes a student likely to already be behind in school to fall farther behind. In many cases, it can actually be an incentive, as opposed to a real deterrent, as it simply represents “days off” from school for the student who most needs to be in school.
 
Again, each of our school sites maintain Parent/Student Handbooks that describe expectations for student behavior and the consequences for students who fall short. Our schools impose consequences that have meaning - consequences that are proportional and that relate to the nature of the offense. Consequences are intended to help the student learn from their mistakes. Generally speaking, this is referred to as restorative justice.

Restorative justice school discipline focuses on relationships, respect, responsibility, repair, and reintegration.

Very broadly, relationship means, once the person who caused harm becomes accountable for their actions and begins to make amends, the relationship can start to heal. Respect means that even if we disagree with someone, we try to understand their perspective. Responsibility means, even if the harm was unintentional, the person who caused harm needs to take responsibility for their actions. Repair means the person who caused harm is expected to repair the harm that they did to the fullest extent possible, knowing well that not all of the harm can be repaired. Reintegration encourages collaboration of the community and the person who caused harm rather than turning toward coercion and isolation.

Please know that every alternative to suspension the BOMUSD employs has been created to address the above principles. And, again, in cases where it is warranted, we can and do continue to suspend and even expel students from school. And, we are working hard to implement truly meaningful and positively impactful alternatives to school suspensions. We understand that these changes may be difficult to adjust to, but we believe that they will ultimately benefit our students. By providing meaningful alternatives to suspensions and expulsions, we can ensure that students who make mistakes are given the opportunity to learn from them and stay in school.
 
Footnote: Social media presents an especially difficult challenge for schools and student discipline. It is important to understand that school administration, with regard to student discipline, must be able to PROVE a direct link between what happens on social media with attendance at school. For a TON of reasons it can be difficult to find this proof. School is roughly 7 hours a day and social media is 24/7.