Madison in the Morning

Madison in the Morning

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MMSD does away with out of school suspensions for elementary students

MADISON (WKOW) -- The Madison Metropolitan School District is changing the way they handle suspension. While it's been common practice since October 2021, the school board has officially done away with out of school suspensions for elementary students. 

"Out of school suspension are really ineffective at addressing student misbehavior," Associate Professor in the School Psychology Department at UW Madison, Katie Eklund, said. "We often think of out of school suspensions as being a punishment, that it's going to help improve student behaviors or that they'll learn from their mistakes by being out of school. What we also what we actually find is it does just the opposite."

Coordinator of Progressive Discipline at MMSD, Lili Hangartner, says the school district is following data that suggests removing students from school only exacerbates behavioral issues.

"What [suspensions] do is they make students feel unwelcome and not a part of their school community," Hangartner said. 

Eklund says students have a much better chance of getting back on track when they're surrounded by peers and trained professionals.

"We might think about kids who are acting out or wanting attention," Eklund said. "Schools have practices in place that really support kids who might be having behavioral challenges or concerns to try to give them that positive adult recognition that they might need and really thrive from."

While suspensions are a more traditional approach most people are used to, Eklund says they've been found to do more harm than good. She says the best place thing for a student with behavioral issues is around an adult who can give them additional instruction on what they should be doing. 

"We know that if kids receive an out of school suspension, they're more likely to receive another one down the road and potentially be involved in the juvenile justice system as they get older," Eklund said. 

Hangartner says the suspension rule will not apply to students who act violently or criminally, like bringing a gun to school. In that case, expulsion proceedings would begin. 

Eklund and Hangartner both say keeping students in school who are working through behavioral challenges will require more training and time from staff, but MMSD says they're prepared to help teachers along the transition.

"We know that we also need to be supporting our school staff and continually helping them to like be able to implement the interventions and support mechanisms that we think are going to best serve our students," Hangartner said. 

If parents or guardians of MMSD students have questions about the new procedures or why they're implemented, Hangartner says they should never hesitate to reach out to the district.

More at WKOW 27 News


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