Maryland education leaders on Tuesday approved the most sweeping changes in decades to state discipline policies, culminating a four-year effort to find a more constructive approach to student punishment, end racial disparities in suspensions and keep students who are punished in school.
The new regulations allow principals to suspend students but establish a more rehabilitative philosophy and reserve the harshest penalties for the most severe offenses. They also create a new timeline for appeals and add educational services for suspended students.
The Maryland State Board of Education’s action comes three weeks after Obama administration officials called for a similar rethinking of student discipline nationwideand issued the first set of federal disciplineguidelines. It also follows several cases in and near the Washington region that got the attention of Maryland officials, including the suicide of a Virginia football player who had faced harsh punishment and the discipline of two Maryland lacrosse players over equipment they carried to fix their gear.
Local school boards in Maryland will have until the beginning of the next school year to revise their discipline policies. They may choose their own approaches, but the state plans to monitor the impact of discipline on minorities and special education students, and individual cases could end up with the board on appeal. State officials also have encouraged Maryland’s 24 districts to evaluate discipline on a case-by-case basis and to abandon zero-tolerance practices.
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13 comments:
I feel so sorry for the teachers now that the government has excused the parents from being responsible for their child's behavior. The teachers should not have to tolerate any student who can not abide by the rules of school. Students who are permitted to be disruptive in school and act like a fool is how they will act when released to society.
If I had a child in a Maryland school, I'd move to Delaware where they don't tolerate disruptive students. Folks, for the sake of your children and for their protection, vote Republican and get the liberals out of Annapolis.
That is pretty stupid 10:56 since Maryland is ranked 5th in the nation and Delaware 32nd.
11:45 Those rankings are posted in the name of creative accounting. It's like the numbers Obama put up on Obamacare. It's like "market research". You only ask the questions that you want yes answers for.
"If I had a child in a Maryland school, I'd move to Delaware where they don't tolerate disruptive students."
It is happening nationwide, sorry. Google Obama-Holder school discipline policy changes aka racial quotas for school suspensions.
"since Maryland is ranked 5th "
Do you understand how statistics work?
Go to neighborhoodscout.com and search for top 10 best school districts in Maryland. Your statement holds true if you live in one of those 10 areas. Wicomico county public schools are not on that list.
If you compare demographic profile for those districts with Wicomico county, you will see why our schools will never be on that list, unless the achievement gap will magically close.
This is sad. It will only push more parents to put their children in private school. What will be left in the public school is students that aren't teachable.
"It will only push more parents to put their children in private school"
Charters are a very good alternative too. Too bad Wicomico county residents are too inert to step forward with the initiative to open a charter school.
10:56-This problem is nationwide in public schools because it's "suggested" by the US Dept of Ed who then dangles grant money over the heads of the schools if they show results such as less suspensions and expulsions. The way to show less of both, is to revise the policy making it harder to suspend/expel a student unless they are involved in a serious incident.
The should just start calling public schools pre-prisons. All they are becoming anymore are incubators for future criminals.
This is ridiculous. A kid can cuss you out, disrupt class for the other 20 kids in the class, and we kiss his ass because he's had a "bad day". Maybe our prison system in Maryland would be a little less crowded if we punished kids early on. But instead they get numerous chances to disrupt and it continues daily. Why do the kids get to dictate how the education system works now? Our school systems are in deep trouble. Its sad.
It is sad when students can do and say what they want and the teahcers are held accountable. Kids today are not the same as ten years ago. Systems are already set up to excuse them of consequences due to Iep's or 504's, or because their parents scream louder than others. When are we going to make kids accountable for their own behavior. There are many kids who sit in class and want to learn and teachers and administrators hands are tied when dealing with kids who misbehave and stop the process of their learning. Think about it, a kid that disrupts the classroom stops everyone from doing what they are there to do. It stops teachers from teaching to deal with the behaviors and the other kids in the class lose what they may have learned. We are more concerned with the misbehaving child than those that are losing knowledge.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
That is pretty stupid 10:56 since Maryland is ranked 5th in the nation and Delaware 32nd.
May 10, 2014 at 11:45 AM
5th in what? Taxes? Murders? Corrupt police? Number of people leaving a state?
geesh
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