Promoting Safe Schools and Academic Success: Moving Your School from Punitive Discipline to Effective Discipline

Effective discipline is essential to creating safe, supportive learning environments for all students, which is critical to academic achievement. Since the passage of zero tolerance policies in the early 1990s, many school districts have relied on punitive discipline focused on harsh strategies such as using suspension and expulsion as primary disciplinary actions for even minor misconduct. Unfortunately, as school psychologists know, purely punitive discipline is ineffective at best and often even counterproductive, denying students vital learning time and undermining the overall school climate. The good news is that policy makers and school districts are beginning to respond to the growing evidence that punitive discipline does not work, and to take a serious look at alternative approaches. School psychologists are in an ideal position to assist schools in creating safe learning environments by working closely with administrators and staff. They have unique training in children's psychological and educational development as well as behavior management to facilitate the implementation of effective school-wide and targeted positive discipline strategies. Helping one's school establish such a policy may seem overwhelming in the face of the immediate needs of disruptive students; however, getting buy-in from key stakeholders and decision makers can start with some simple, basic steps at the start of the school year. The authors discuss these basic steps. (Contains 2 online resources.)