Sacramento City USD
Board Policy
Discipline

BP 5144 
Students

The Governing Board desires to prepare youth for responsible citizenship by fostering self-discipline and personal responsibility.  The Board perceives that good planning; a good understanding of each child and family involvement can minimize the need for discipline. The Superintendent or designee will ensure that all district staff, parents, guardians, students and community partners working in our schools and in the surrounding community have a role and responsibility in positively impacting this policy.

This policy sets forth a framework for implementing alternatives to the current discipline system, which has focused on out-of-school removals as a means to address student behavior and resulted in negative outcomes for students and schools.  Consistent with California law, for most conduct before in-school or out-of-school suspension is utilized, other means of correction must be put in place and be shown to have failed.  Before consequences are given, students must first be supported in learning the skills necessary to enhance a positive school climate and avoid negative behavior.  To that end, consistent and clear guidelines will be utilized to avoid disparate application and treatment, promote equity, and encourage individualized and customized responses to student behavior.

Discipline should be equitable, timely, consistent, fair, and developmentally appropriate and match the severity of the student's misbehavior, while ensuring school safety.  Discipline practices should eliminate disparities in applying discipline by assuring equitable interventions and consequences across all schools and for all students, with special attention to those who have been disproportionately impacted.

The Superintendent or designee will collaboratively develop a Discipline Matrix with stakeholders that shall be used to guide the actions of all school site leaders with regards to when out-of-school suspension or an expulsion referral can be utilized for certain offenses recognized in the California Education Code.  School sites can further refine this matrix to explicitly discuss particular school needs or address problem school areas (such as the playground) or times of day (such as after lunch), but the elements in this matrix shall be applied equally to all students and data shall be entered and analyzed monthly by all school sites to ensure equal and objective application.  The Superintendent or designee will review the data entered to ensure that the Matrix is being followed and take appropriate action if discrepancies are found.

It is the intent of this policy to minimize the excessive use of willful defiance as a reason to impose in-school and off-campus removals that often lead to poor educational outcomes, and encourage schools to use alternative means of correction such as participation in programs that are restorative with positive behavior supports that include tiered interventions and other forms of correction that focuses on keeping students in school and learning.

This Board policy also separates "willful defiance" into non-suspendable and suspendable categories of offenses.  Non-suspendable offenses are those that are annoying and irritating childish acts on the part of students that do not genuinely defy the valid authority of school

employees during the execution of their duties.  Schools will develop alternative processes to handle these kinds of offenses.  Suspendable offenses under Section (K) of the California Education Code 48900 are student offenses that willfully defy the valid authority of supervisors, teachers, or (SCUSD) administrators, school personnel that are disruptive actions that prohibit (SCUSD) the continuance of an educational event to the extent that a student's refusal is unruly, aggressively threatening, or (SCUSD) loudly profane. These offenses will follow the more traditional processes of interventions i.e., class suspensions and referrals to the appropriate school employees.

This board policy also mandates alternative interventions when the offense is suspendable with off-campus suspension being used as a last resort. Schools are free to implement their own student discipline protocols consistent with Board policy so long as those protocols are not in conflict with restorative justice practices.  The policy requires that all principals must, unless strictly mandated by law, utilize alternatives to suspension and expulsion that are available at their school sites.

The Superintendent or designee will provide to the board an annual plan that will address the roll-out of professional development insuring that all district employees will be trained in the following:

1.	Mandatory professional development in the area of School Wide Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports

2.	Mandatory professional development in Restorative Practices and Social and Emotional Learning

3.	Mandatory professional development in the area of implicit bias

4.	Mandatory professional development in the area of cultural proficiency

Ongoing and annual budget priorities adopted by this governing board will reflect the need to prioritize ongoing supports for student interventions, staff professional training and other resources identified by the Superintendent or designee, parents, administrators, school site leadership team, certificate and classified staff and students that will help enhance the achieving the goals of this policy.

(cf. 4158/4258/4358 - Employee Security)
(cf. 5131 - Conduct)
(cf. 5142 - Safety)
(cf. 5144.1 - Suspension and Expulsion/Due Process)
(cf. 6159.4 - Behavioral Interventions for Special Education Students)
(cf. 6164.5 - Student Study Teams)

Legal Reference:
EDUCATION CODE
32280-32288  School safety plans
35146  Closed sessions
35291  Rules
35291.5-35291.7  School-adopted discipline rules
37223  Weekend classes
44807.5  Restriction from recess
48900-48926  Suspension and expulsion
48980-48985  Notification of parent/guardian
49330-49335  Injurious objects
52060-52077  Local control and accountability plan
CIVIL CODE
1714.1  Parental liability for child's misconduct
CODE OF REGULATIONS, TITLE 5
307  Participation in school activities until departure of bus
353  Detention after school

Management Resources:
CSBA PUBLICATIONS
Providing a Safe, Nondiscriminatory School Environment for Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Students, Policy Brief, February 2014
Safe Schools:  Strategies for Governing Boards to Ensure Student Success, 2011
Maximizing Opportunities for Physical Activity during the School Day, Fact Sheet, 2009
CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PROGRAM ADVISORIES
Classroom Management: A California Resource Guide for Teachers and Administrators of Elementary and Secondary Schools, 2000
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION POLICIES
01-02 School Safety, Discipline, and Attendance, March 2001
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS PUBLICATIONS
Dear Colleague Letter on the Nondiscriminatory Administration of School Discipline, January 2014
WEB SITES
CSBA: http://www.csba.org
California Department of Education:  http://www.cde.ca.gov
Public Counsel:  http://www.fixschooldiscipline.org
U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr

Policy	SACRAMENTO CITY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
adopted:  November 16, 1998	Sacramento, California
revised:  April 15, 2002
revised:  June 5, 2014