How does your child’s school approach school discipline and school climate? The University of Chicago Consortium on School Research recently released a toolkit called Family Playbook: School Suspensions, Discipline & Restorative Justice. The playbook summarizes research and data on school discipline and includes actions you can take to learn more about how your child’s school approaches discipline and climate in school.

While the data is drawn from Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the research conclusions apply to schools across the state and nation. The research shows that suspensions and expulsions:

  • Negatively affect the school climate—and even impact students who are not suspended.
  • Increase the likelihood of a suspended student repeating a grade, dropping out of school, and becoming involved with the criminal justice system.
  • Do not provide students with the tools and opportunities to learn new approaches to resoliven conflicts.
  • Damage student-school staff relationships.

The data also shows that while suspensions in CPS have dropped over the last decade by 75% as the district focused less on punishment and more on social and emotional learning (SEL), some student groups are suspended more than others, particularly students with disabilities and black students. In addition, suspension rates vary significantly between schools, even those with similar student populations. What did stand out in the data is that high-suspension rate schools also tend to have a poor school climate, though whether one causes the other or both are feeding back on each other was not clear.

The report recommends that school look to restorative justice practices in place of suspensions and expulsions. Restorative justice aims to bring non-punitive, relationship-focused approaches to student discipline by building healthy relationships, working to heal harms and conflict, and fostering justice and equity.

Research on the CPS schools using restorative justice practices and policies showed:

  • Fewer suspensions
  • Reduced racial disparities in school discipline
  • Fewer discipline referrals
  • Improved school climate
  • Higher-quality teacher-student relationships
  • Higher attendance rates
  • Improved academic achievement across elementary and high school classrooms
  • A 35% reduction in student arrests in school
  • A 15% reduction in student arrests out of school
  • An 18% decrease in out-of-school suspensions

Finally, the report shares how families can learn about how their child’s school approaches school discipline and climate. In particular, here are four questions that families can ask their school leadership:

  • How are you supporting students’ social, emotional, and academic learning?
  • Whose job is it to ensure all students feel safe and secure and treat each other well?
  • What approaches to discipline practices or programs does our school use (e.g., suspensions, restorative justice)?
  • How can I as a parent request a restorative justice or social emotional intervention for my student if they experienced or caused harm in a school incident?

For more information and resources, check out the full report: Family Playbook: School Suspensions, Discipline & Restorative Justice.