Leaders against suspensions ban
Superintendents use long-term removal as a negotiating tool
ALBANY — A ban on student suspensions is a bad idea, school superintendents told the state Board of Regents on Monday.
They welcomed the idea of finding alternatives as often as possible, and cited many successful initiatives they have begun, but they said there are some situations in which they must be able to remove a child from school.
The issue has been highlighted in New York in recent weeks as the state Legislature considers a ban on suspensions on the subjective offense of “insubordination.” The proposed legislation would also limit suspensions to 20 days, down from the one year maximum allowed now. But the Board of Regents could also set policy on the issue.
Superintendents around the state were invited to speak to the board via video conference Monday, along with a Rutgers University professor who detailed his research on who gets suspended in school. Poorer students and minority students were disproportionally disciplined, he said.
Superintendents offered a defense of some suspensions, saying they must be fair but cannot eliminated. They described using long-term suspensions as a negotiating method to get families to sign a “contract” in exchange for a shorter suspension. The contracts sometimes require families to get their children mental health care.
“We can’t mandate that,” Superintendent Daryl Mclaughin said, explaining that it’s allowed if the family agrees to it voluntarily in a contract.
Mclaughlin leads the Perry Central School District in western New York. He said there’s a lack of mental health resources in his rural area, but that the contracts are working.
“Our recidivism rates have dropped,” he said, adding that districts can use long-term suspensions as a “reengagement measure” by requiring certain actions in the contracts.
In the last three years, all of his district’s long-term suspensions were due to actions that risked the health, safety and welfare of students and staff, he said.
The Board of Regents did not make any public statements at Monday’s meeting on whether they want to ban long-term suspensions. After a two-hour meeting on the topic, in which they mainly asked questions, they moved on without any decisions. Officials in the state Education Department will present “recommendations” to them in the future, they said.
Superintendents described changing their in-school suspension rooms to voluntary spaces where students could receive counseling and help from trained professionals. They outlined efforts to teach social-emotional skills — everything from managing difficult emotions to getting along with others — as a way of reducing the unsafe behaviors that can lead to suspensions.
They also said that training teachers in de-escalation and community-building proved effective.
“However, there are times when exclusion is necessary to protect health and safety,” said Superintendent Martha Group of the Vernon Verona Sherrill school district in central New York.
In the Oceanside school district on Long Island, every week a violent threat is made by a student, Oceanside Superintendent Phyllis Harrington said.
“We have to take every threat seriously. Not all of them end in suspension. School leaders must have flexibility.”
Harrington also described long-term suspension as a way of getting families’ attention.
“Sadly, unfortunately, parents are not always our partners. Sometimes, in unique circumstances, we do need to elevate the consequence to get the parents to the table.”
Geneva Superintendent Lawrence “Bo” Wright said that while he’s ready and willing to tackle disproportionality in his Finger Lakes district — the fact that minority students are punished more than white students — there is still a need for evenhanded discipline.
“The disciplinary issues people are facing in schools are real.
They’re everywhere.”
And it’s not all due to trauma or mental illness, he added.
“I had to suspend a student a week and a half ago for selling drugs out of my bathroom. There was no (trauma or mental illness) there.”
Wright said he will suspend when it’s warranted.
“But all suspensions must include a restorative measure or mental health care,” he said.
Wright has worked at several districts that tried capping or banning suspensions.
“In terms of actually addressed behavior and building school culture and making school safer, in my experience, it had the opposite effect,” he said.
However, not all school leaders who spoke felt that way.
“Exclusionary disciplinary practices do not work,” said New York City Education Department official Kenyatte Reid, describing it as a desire “to punish our way out of these unwanted behaviors.”
He said the Board of Regents should require social-emotional skills just as it requires a certain amount of time spent in physical education or music.
“We have to teach social-emotional skills,” Reid said. “We have to start with that. I’m urging you: Social-emotional learning is just as important as their physical well-being.”