The Maryland State Board of Education recently required local jurisdictions to adopt positive, common sense discipline policies focusing on keeping kids in school—and not pushing them out.
Building on its work to reduce suspensions in Baltimore City, OSI-Baltimore provided the State Board with testimony and continues to provide data and working models from across the country to influence implementation of the Board’s new school discipline reforms.
These reforms will reduce the lengths of out-of-school suspensions, make sure kids still receive school instruction if they are suspended or expelled, collect data on school arrests and referrals to the juvenile justice system, and ensure that children with disabilities and children of color do not continue to be suspended and expelled at higher rates. (Read more in this recent blog post by OSI-Baltimore’s Kate Rabb.)
Keeping children in school, teaching them appropriate behaviors, and using common sense discipline strategies will help all Maryland children to stay on pace with their classmates and on course to graduate, well prepared to enter the workforce or go on to college.
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