The state of Washington announced various changes to student discipline policies as part of efforts to address post-pandemic behavior in public schools.
The guidelines are expected to go into effect across the state starting next month as educators argue that they are necessary to fix disruptive classroom behavior. Despite this, the changes are facing widespread criticism from some student and family advocates.
Washington Updates Student Discipline Policies
The Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction officially adopted the updated discipline policies on June 10. This comes after the agency enacted an emergency version of the rules last August in response to "ongoing confusion and challenges surrounding the interpretation" of existing policies that were set in 2019.
Those particular emergency rules were used as the basis of the permanent update that is set to take effect on July 11. Last week, Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal said that the policies will maintain limits on long-term suspensions and expulsions, maintain communication standards, and reduce bureaucracy, according to the Washington State Standard.
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Reykdal said that since the COVID-19 pandemic, student behaviors have worsened, noting increased use of mobile devices, heightened anxiety over local and global crises, and other issues that the previous rules have not properly addressed.
Some student advocates are arguing that the updated policies undermine student protections, adding that Reykdal's office did not seek enough community feedback in preparing them. League of Education Voters Foundation Chief Engagement Officer Eric Holzapfel said the update is a rollback of student discipline reforms made six years ago.
Addressing Problematic Classroom Behavior
The updated rules include a teacher being able to remove a student from their classroom if they are not able to redirect students to stay on task, even after giving them a warning. Educators are allowed to remove problematic students from their classrooms for up to two days, News Talk Kit reported.
Furthermore, teachers will no longer have to go through a checklist to see if any of the alternative methods work first before they do so. While they are required to try at least one, they can skip the others if they believe that they will not be effective given a specific scenario.
Executive director of the Black Education Strategy Roundtable, Derick Harris, noted that because Black students are two times more likely to face disciplinary actions compared to white students, they will be the ones who are going to be unfairly affected by the changes.
He argues that the update appears to be a rollback to a "bygone era of zero-tolerance policy," adding that within the Black community lies a streamlined pathway from the school to the prison, as per the Public News Service.
