Fix School Discipline Toolkit for Educators | Page 27

HIGHLIGHT: VALLEJO CITY
UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
Superintendent Ramona Bishop and Dr. La Tonya Derbigny, Director of
School and Student Accountability
District Snapshot: Vallejo City Unified School District is located north of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a

district with 14,500 student attending 22 schools. In 2009-2010, as a district that suspended 21% of its students,
Vallejo City was one of the top 10 suspending districts in the entire state. However, since implementing
PBIS, restorative practices and trauma-sensitive strategies over the past three years, the District has reduced
suspensions by 45% and increased graduation rates by 11%.

Why did you decide to implement an
alternative discipline system focusing
on Positive Behavior Interventions and
Support in Vallejo City Unified?
Superintendent Ramona Bishop: The short
answer: The way we were managing our schools
and classrooms in Vallejo was to kick children out.
When I brought Dr. Derbigny on staff, her job was
to look at all of our data district-wide and figure out
what we needed to increase academic success at
all of our schools. Not only did we see high rates
of suspensions and expulsions, but extraordinary
disproportionality in the way those out-of-school
discipline methods were being implemented. Also,
when we disaggregated the academic achievement
scores, the achievement gap was clear and it mirrored
our practices related to out-of-school discipline.
Because our District is 30% African-American and
30% Latino, and these were the students with the
lowest achievement levels and highest suspension
levels, we knew we had to do something fast.
When I visited schools, there was no evidence of
SWPBIS. When you go to a SWPBIS school, the
evidence is everywhere and the school looks different,
there is structure and coordination and students are
learning.
Dr. La Tonya Derbigny: We came to the realization
that change was needed during the summer of 2011.
In the first presentation th BvRvfRF