School Climate & School Discipline: A Guidance Package
The U.S. Department of Education (ED), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), released a school discipline guidance package on January 8, 2014 that will assist states, districts and schools in developing solutions to enhance school climate, and improve school discipline policies and practices. While incidents of school violence have decreased overall, too many schools are still struggling to create positive, safe environments. The guidance package provides resources for creating such climates, which are essential for boosting student academic success and closing achievement gaps, including:
- A Dear Colleague guidance letter describes how schools can meet their legal obligations under federal civil rights law to administer student discipline without discriminating against students on the basis of race, color or national origin;
- A Guiding Principles document draws from emerging research and best practices to describe three key principles and related action steps to improve school climate and school discipline;
- A Directory of Federal School Climate and Discipline Resources indexes the federal technical assistance and other resources on school discipline and climate available to schools and districts; and
- A Compendium of School Discipline Laws and Regulations provides a comparison of the various state laws and regulations related to school discipline.
To view the resource documents, visit www.ed.gov/school-discipline.