Dear Students, Parents, and Guardians,

Welcome back to the NEW school year!

I believe that schools should be welcoming environments where students feel supported and where students look forward to attending. Students’ positive behavior should receive encouragement, and our goal should be to keep students in school and learning as much as possible.

In the past, our discipline policy did not make all students feel welcome or supported. Discipline was handed out too quickly at times, and too many students were suspended, often for up to 10 days at a time.

While student misbehavior needs to be addressed, especially serious incidents involving violence, our focus needs to remain on creating positive school cultures that keep kids in school.

The Guide to Student Rights and Responsibilities is our effort to emphasize that focus. We created this policy with feedback from students, parents, teachers, and school leaders. We are learning from our mistakes in the past and planning for a more successful future.

My hope is that the guidelines that are outlined below will significantly reduce the number of situations where we need to resort to consequences. I ask for your help in this work—our students bring to school many habits they learn at home. Please reinforce positive habits.

If you believe your student is receiving a consequence that is different from what is included below or that your school does not have a positive learning environment, I encourage you to talk with your Family & Operations Coordinator and, if needed, your school leader. Changing our school cultures will take time, but it is a necessary and important change.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Katrina T. McCombs

State Superintendent