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Student Wellbeing
Topic

Discipline

California districts are looking closely at their zero-tolerance discipline policies. Changes include raising awareness of the impact of trauma on students and implementing restorative justice principles, which require misbehaving students to make amends to those they have harmed. Disproportionate numbers of African-American and, to a lesser extent, Latino youth are suspended or disciplined.

September 9, 2019

California to extend ban on pushing students out of school for disruptive behavior

Gov. Newsom signed legislation that will ban out-of-school suspensions for disruptive behavior and willful defiance after next July.

Louis Freedberg
September 9, 2019

Gov. Newsom must decide whether to expand ban on student suspensions for 'willful defiance'

Suspensions for willful defiance have declined sharply in recent years, but Sen. Nancy Skinner says more state action is needed.

Louis Freedberg
August 24, 2019

On reforming suspensions: a teacher’s plea to California’s lawmakers

Teachers need more support to help struggling students rather than bans that reduce their ability to manage their classrooms.

Jason Sanchez
August 13, 2019

We must disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline

Students who are suspended from school are less likely to graduate from high school and more likely to be arrested and incarcerated.

Nancy Skinner
July 8, 2019

End to random searches of students is a victory for entire school community

District policy of random searches disrupted instruction and made students feel less safe, principal says.

Mauro Bautista
July 1, 2019

Budget realities challenging California school districts’ restorative justice programs

As districts have worked to reduce suspensions and expulsions, they’ve increasingly turned to restorative justice as an alternative.

David Washburn
June 11, 2019

Rural California school district with high suspension rates under state investigation

Butte County’s Oroville City Elementary School District, which has a suspension rate that is three times the statewide average, is being investigated by the state Bureau of Children's Justice.

David Washburn
April 19, 2019

As a candidate for president, Harris taking a softer stance on truancy than she did as a prosecutor

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris championed tough-on-truancy laws while serving as San Francisco’s district attorney and California attorney general. Now she's taking heat for it on the campaign trail.

David Washburn
March 27, 2019

Q&A: California’s first-ever surgeon general on her plans to tackle toxic stress in children

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, a pediatrician who Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed in January, is recognized as a pioneer in the study of how adverse childhood experiences affect brain development and life-long health.

David Washburn
March 24, 2019

Schools lack a clear view of Asian and Pacific Islander discipline disparities, study finds

The study found that students from Southeast Asian countries, like Vietnam and Cambodia, had suspension and expulsion rates that were 2 to 3 times higher than those from China, Japan and other East Asian countries.

David Washburn
March 10, 2019

Many California schools have police but no counselors, ACLU report finds

The report used federal data to make the argument that schoolchildren in America are over-policed and under-supported by health and mental health professionals.

David Washburn
February 27, 2019

Renewed push underway to expand California's ban on some suspensions

A new bill proposed by state Sen. Nancy Skinner would ban out-of-school suspensions in all grades for student behavior deemed “defiant and disruptive” by school authorities. Advocates hopeful Gov. Newsom will be more receptive than Jerry Brown, who vetoed two previous bills.

David Washburn
February 10, 2019

Kamala Harris’s stance on truancy resurfaces as she launches presidential campaign

A 2010 video clip of California senator and presidential hopeful Kamala Harris advocating the prosecution of parents for their children's truancy has re-ignited controversy as schools statewide face greater scrutiny for their rates of chronic absenteeism.

David Washburn
January 22, 2019

Stockton Unified settles state complaint over discriminatory policing practices

State investigators also found that the district violated students' Fourth Amendment rights and the rights of students with disabilities. The district agreed to five years of state monitoring.

David Washburn
January 17, 2019

California’s student suspension rates are far higher in rural schools

Behind the high suspension rates in rural areas are family struggles with poverty, mental illness, addiction and parental incarceration, a dearth of resources to address those needs and underfunded schools.

Lee Romney And Daniel J. Willis