Bill that proposes more student expulsion doesn’t solve the problem

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A bill has been proposed that would give Ohio schools authority to expel, for up to 180 days, students who pose an “imminent and severe endangerment to the health and safety” of other students or employees. The Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics thinks H.B. 334 is a bad idea because it’s reactive and does nothing to cure the problems that underlie bad behavior.  The academy has it right.

H.B. 334 as another step down the road of bad ...

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17
FEB
0

Social Issues

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General Assembly gets it right but also gets it wrong

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The Ohio General Assembly is moving in the right direction with one bill that concerns kids and going the wrong direction with another.

First, the bill that’s going in the right direction, SB 167, which proposes to end the “policy of zero tolerance for violent, disruptive, or inappropriate behavior.”  Enacted in 1998, zero tolerance has been plagued by problems. Administrators have failed to demonstrate critical thinking when employing it, and its use is often discriminatory. Because it generally lacks key elements ...

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28
JAN
0

Social Issues

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Zero-tolerance policies bleed education

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In addition to the problems listed on the national report card it received in 2012, Ohio’s education system must face the consequences of zero tolerance policies: discrimination and higher incarceration rates.  Zero tolerance came about in 1998, when all boards of education were required to adopt “a policy of zero tolerance for violent, disruptive, or inappropriate behavior.”

The broad mandate of zero tolerance and the failure of some administrators to employ critical thinking in applying it have resulted in some absurd results. ...

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18
OCT
0

Social Issues

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