Fix School Discipline Toolkit for Educators | Page 90
HIGHLIGHT ON CADRE, SOUTH LOS ANGELES PARENT
ORGANIZING AND EMPOWERMENT ORGANIZATION
In 2005, CADRE, with support from Public Counsel and others, successfully organized and led a broad-based
campaign to pass a resolution to create Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) Discipline Foundation:
School-Wide Positive Behavior Supports Policy. LAUSD was one of the very first and the largest District in the
nation to adopt a research-based school-wide strategy for all of its schools. Since that time, CADRE has worked
in partnership with Public Counsel and others to ensure that implementation occurs in all of the District’s 800
some schools.
Maisie Chin, Executive Director of CADRE
Knowing what CADRE knows now, what
would CADRE have wanted included in the
original LAUSD DF/SWPBIS Policy to facilitate
faster implementation of that policy?
Knowing what we know now as a result of our
monitoring, the original LAUSD Discipline
Foundation - School-Wide Positive Behavior
Interventions and Supports Policy needed builtin incentives to ensure faster implementation
as well as parent, student, and community
participation. Quarterly and public reporting of data
and progress at regular school board meetings, with
opportunity for public comment and recognition of
schools with full implementation, would be key to the
policy. In addition, implementation needs to mean
more than training and checklists of documents
being created - the full benefit of SWPBIS must
be made clear. We need to tie implementation
to specific outcomes, such as reduction in
suspensions and office referrals, elimination of racial
disproportionality of African American students
suspended, reduction in willful defiance suspensions,
and increased attendance and graduation rates. And
lastly, District resources and funding need to be
re- directed to ensure that there is a budget for
implementing alternatives to suspension.
And, lastly, the Policy has to include a mandate for
schools to show evidence of school-wide alternative
practices to suspension being implemented.
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How we can fix school discipline
What do you think are the key elements of an
implementation monitoring plan to ensure that
alternatives to discipline are appropriately and
quickly implemented and why does a school
district benefit when there is a strong role in the
process for parents/community/youth?
Schools need to have opportunities to learn
new practices and their benefits. As part of
implementation, schools should have guidance
around culturally responsive behavior support,
both prevention and intervention, and be asked to
involve parents,youth, and community in selecting
and developing their school-wide alternatives.
Such participation would facilitate the shared
accountability and relationship-building that is so
vital for transforming schools.
Feel free to contact us:
CADRE
8410 South Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90003
Phone: 323.752.9997
Email: [email protected]