SOWA Bridge conferenceMonday October 27, 2014

Working to improve public education in Washington State from cradle to career with ample, equitable, and stable funding

We spend the first year of a child’s life teaching it to walk and talk, and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There’s something wrong there.

- Neil deGrasse Tyson -

What does culture have to do with it?• Introduction: 10 minutes• Part I: What does culture have to do with

it? – small groups, 25 minutes• Report back - 10• Part II: Advocacy Role Play – small

groups, 25 minutes• Report back, 10 minutes

• Further resources and next steps, 10 minutes

Overview: School Discipline

Interviews Community conversations and presentations Actions: postcards, e-mails, petitions, testimonies, phone

calls, personal visits

Limits to suspensions and expulsions Public data collection Reengagement plans Statewide taskforce

Limits on long term suspensions

Mobilizing by LEV and many others

SB 5946

New Rules

Advocacy tips

• Notification of suspension/expulsions

• Limits on suspensions/expulsions

• Educational services• Reengagement meeting and

plan

What does culture have to do with school discipline?

• Respect• Good communication• Discipline• Rules• Expectations for

schools• Expectations for

children by gender

• Respect• Good

communication• Discipline• School rules• Expectations for

students and parents – boys vs girls

What did you learn?

• What overlap do you see (if any between the cultural messages in a family’s home vs that of schools?

• What values would you add to the list that concern student behavior and school discipline?

Role play scenarios• Role play A

• Three students are at elementary school recess, and two of them report to their teacher that the first hit them because he wanted the basketball. The parents of the first boy speak English as a second language

• Role play B• A high school student with special needs who was at recess with

another student was accused of having a cell phone, even though the other student stated that the phone was his. The principal wants to suspend the student because possession of the cell phone violates school rules, and the student with special needs shouted to his teacher that he didn’t own the phone.

Role Play debrief

• How did the role play go, and what did you learn?

• What is your current understanding of how decisions get made about whether or not to discipline students?

• How can I advocate as a parent? As a student?

There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.

- Nelson Mandela -

Resources

• Office of Education Ombudsman (OEO)

• 1-866-297-2597• www.governor.wa.gov/oeo

• Team Child: legal representation for youth 12 and up

• Seattle• www.teamchild.org

QUESTIONS?

Next steps…

• Please sign our action card• Join our coalition