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Discipline plan: zero tolerance, expand CEP
Students returning to school this fall face a much tougher discipline code, including what new CEO Paul Vallas calls a "zero tolerance" policy.
A recent report by the District's Safe Schools Advocate found that there were 29 serious or violent incidents a day in Philadelphia schools last year and that nearly one-third of the 1,122 incidents involving weapons were never reported to the police, in violation of state law.
"Quite simply, discipline was not taken seriously at some schools," commented School Reform Commission Chair James Nevels, in explaining the new policies.
"All our children suffer when enforcement is not uniform." he added.
Key features of the District's new approach to school discipline include:
- Providing all students with a booklet describing the revised student discipline code.
- Eliminating discretion in reporting serious incidents. Vallas has stressed that when he was CEO in Chicago, he fired principals for not reporting incidents.
- Ending the disciplinary transfer of students from one school to another, in favor of sending them to alternative schools.
- Increasing the capacity of the District's alternative discipline schools.
- Publishing a list of victim's rights and publicizing its "bully hotline" (215-299-SAFE).
- Providing schools experiencing discipline problems with support from "Crisis Intervention Teams."
Vallas has stressed that the new policy means students caught with weapons or involved in violent acts will face expulsion to an alternative school.
"We don't want to expel students onto the street, but we want to get them out of the general high school or the general middle school if they're going to pose a danger to other students," he said.
"Our objective is going to be to keep violent offenders in alternative schools and keep them out of neighborhood schools," Vallas said.
Vallas has been critical of the three District-run discipline schools - Boone, Shallcross, and Miller. "There are private providers out there that do a far better job," Vallas said.
He is positive about a privately operated school run by Community Education Partners (CEP), now in its third year.
The School District is expanding its relationship with CEP to provide more spaces both for students facing disciplinary action and students coming out of juvenile facilities.
But things have not gone so smoothly for CEP recently in their home state of Texas.
The Dallas Independent School District has cancelled a $6 million contract with CEP to manage a discipline school, saying the district can provide at least as good a program for less money.
In Houston, where CEP operates a discipline school, public hearings in September addressed concerns that CEP is "warehousing" large numbers of students of color. State legislators heard from parents who said their children were not coming home with books or homework, but others credited the program with turning their children around.
Harvey Rice, the District's Safe Schools Advocate, points to benefits for students of sending them to CEP and other discipline schools. He explained that the schools feature smaller classes and added, "The student gets more individualized support services."
But with thousands of Philadelphia's students now likely to spend a year or more placed in CEP, some are calling for more scrutiny of CEP's program.