NEWS

School discipline: What works?

Bonnie Bolden
bbolden@thenewsstar.com

Data can show us how many students in Louisiana are receiving what punishments. Districts send regular reports to the Department of Education. But what's working?

According to 2013-14 discipline data provided by the Louisiana Department of Education, about 9.8 percent of students statewide had an in-school suspension. About 8.3 percent had an out-of-school suspension and less than 5 percent were suspended to an alternate site. Less than 5 percent faced in-school, out-of-school or alternate site expulsions.

Tensas and Jackson parishes ranked fourth and fifth in the state, respectively, in the percent of students placed under in-school suspension. Tensas had 21.5 percent with 155 students, and Jackson had 21.4 percent with 546 students.

Franklin Parish ranked fifth statewide in the percent of students in alternate-site suspension with 217 students making 6.4 percent.

The rankings of small districts will be more broadly affected by a few students than will larger districts because they make a larger percentage of the student body.

No northeastern Louisiana parish ranked among the state's top five for out-of-school suspension. Rates for in-school, out-of-school and alternate-site expulsions were all less than 5 percent per district statewide.

Tensas Parish Schools Superintendent Carol S. Johnson said her district has seen a large decrease in fights and minor issues since instituting an in-school suspension program a few years ago. Minor problems, she said, relate to cellphone use, dress code, etc.

Before students are sent to the office, Carol Johnson said teachers talk to them, contact parents and explore other, less severe options like keeping a student in at recess.

"With everything, you've got to have parent support," she said. "Parental involvement plays a major role in any facet of education."

She said expulsions also have been reduced since the creation of an off-campus alternative program.

"What we have in place is working for us," Carol Johnson said.

In Ouachita Parish, 1,542 students, or 7.1 percent, had in-school suspensions and 1,638 students, 7.6 percent, had out-of-school suspensions. The district was in the middle of the rankings for northeastern Louisiana.

Ouachita Parish Schools Superintendent Don Coker said his district focuses on being proactive and reaching students through positive student-behavior initiatives.

A district employee, Coker said, tracks each school's monthly reports and looks for the primary issues affecting each site.

A major problem, he said, is disrespect. A way to handle smaller issues, such as individual tardies or instances of showing disrespect, is to differentiate between minor and major referrals. Several minor issues, he said, might lead to a more serious penalty. The problems and solutions are individual to each school, Coker said.

Referrals can lead to detention sessions before being escalated to an in-school suspension. An out-of-school suspension is the next step, followed by alternate-site suspensions.

Threats or bringing a weapon to school can be grounds for expulsion.

In all districts, the general goal is to keep students in school.

After more than five unexcused absences, a student cannot pass the year. To mitigate that, Ouachita Parish schools offer Saturday seminars — sessions offered on the weekend to let students earn back time lost. The sessions bring in speakers on different topics while letting the students recover "seat time," said Gary Armstrong, director of child welfare and attendance for the district.

Coker said the proactive approach pays dividends.

Franklin Parish Schools Superintendent Lanny Johnson said every school is going to have varying degrees of discipline problems. "You just have to handle them and move on."

In-school suspension, he said, has been helpful at the junior high level, but the district uses its alternative school for behavior problems as well.

"The main thing is that we want to keep children and students in school and not send them home," he said.

Lanny Johnson said district administrators and principals talk about discipline all the time. He said making sure that principals and teachers know about all the options available to them is important.

He said the most important element in school discipline are parents being engaged in their children's lives, motivating their students and working with the school to resolve problems.

"I think we're doing better in Franklin Parish than we have have in a long time," he said.

Where do our schools rank?

In-School Suspension: Top 5 districts

  • New Orleans Military/Maritime Academy: 110 students — 28.0%
  • City of Baker School District: 549 students — 27.8%
  • RSD-Pelican Educational Foundation: 131 students — 22.8%
  • Tensas Parish: 155 students — 21.5%
  • Jackson Parish: 546 students — 21.4%

Alternate Site Suspension: Top 5 districts

  • East Baton Rouge Parish: 6,205 students — 13.6%
  • City of Baker School District: 230 students — 11.6%
  • Central Community School District: 372 students — 7.9%
  • St. Charles Parish: 698 students — 6.8%
  • Franklin Parish: 217 students — 6.4%

No northeastern Louisiana parish ranked among the state's top five for out-of-school suspension.
Rates for in-school, out-of school and alternate-site expulsions were all less than 5 percent per district statewide.

— Information from the Louisiana Department of Education

Online

To see all the data for northeastern Louisiana, go to http://bit.ly/1Ql7IPJ.