Resources

The article Creating System Change to Reduce Disparities in Discipline offers best practices for implementing a system to reduces racial disparities in school discipline. The article also serves as a case study, detailing the fundamental aspects of achieving meaningful change in disciplining children in schools. Following a lawsuit brought against the Antioch School District by the ACLU of Northern California, the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) created a program for the school district to remedy the unequal racial distribution of disciplinary action.

In order to achieve tangible outcomes, NCBI developed a program consisting of five components:

• Building a strong in-house leadership team to enable administrators to clearly understand the practices that should be institutionalized in their respective schools
• Creating system-wide buy-in
• Training students to lead the way
• Encouraging parent participation to create a climate where students and administrators have a vested interest in the outcome of the program
• Working to understand underlying biases and working with disciplinarians at all levels to cultivate skills and raise general awareness about inherent biases

In conjunction with other methodologies found in this resource, NCBI details tactics which can aid conflict resolution without resorting to suspension or expulsion.