The San Francisco school board has adopted a measure forbidding suspensions or expulsion referrals made solely for “disruption/willful defiance.” It is set to kick in by fall. Los Angeles approved a similar measure last spring.
The resolution calls for alternative discipline that “shall reflect evidence-based interventions for differing levels of defiant or disruptive behavior.”
Many schools more frequently cite students of certain racial groups for infractions like “disobedience” because some teachers perceive greater threat from the behavior of black students, for example, than from their white peers, say school discipline policy critics.
