Positive behavior strategies improve–not punish–behavior. They're an effective consequence for behavior challenges.
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What is our goal when we assign consequences for disciplinary infractions? Is it punishment? Is it to make a point? Is it to send a message? Or is it to improve disruptive behavior?
That subtle mindset shift is very beneficial to students' future success. Consequences focus on improving not punishing.
So how do you assign consequences or interventions that improve the behavior going forward? More importantly, how do you create buy-in with students and staff so they understand the goals behind your actions?
This takes a bit of creativity and often can take more time than traditional consequences. But when done with fidelity these strategies to squash disruptive behavior will reduce behavior infractions and thus reduce behavior referrals over time.
Keep reading for a list of examples and how best to implement them in your school.
If you are seeing classroom disruptions and conflicts on a regular basis, you need to provide some tools for your staff to work through those issues in the room.
If you can create a school culture centered around empathy and respect in the classroom, you will reduce the need for an administrator to resolve every dispute.
I suggest you train your staff on the power of restorative circles. They provide a structured system for the teacher to facilitate tough discussions in the classroom.
If done well, you create a community atmosphere in the classroom and this will allow students to talk through issues before they need to become office-managed issues.
When you process a discipline referral, how does that conversation go? Do you read the referral, then check the chart and assign consequences based on the infraction? Or do you talk through the issue with the student and promote empathy and ownership?
I suggest utilizing Restorative Questions when you have these conversations. Try asking the student these questions:
The goal behind this line of questioning is for the student to accept ownership of their actions and then take an active part in deciding the best course of action going forward.
The key to success here is that the referring staff understands the process you are carrying out. Everyone needs training on this process, whether they process referrals or not.
We want our students to learn to solve disputes with words, not with violence. Establish a process for students to have 1v1 discussions to resolve situations before they spiral out of control.
If an infraction has already been committed, I’ll often reduce the punitive consequences if both parties agree to mediation with one of our counselors or mental health professionals.
The key to success here is that both students are willing to participate and that your staff sets very clear ground rules on who is to speak and when. Let them know that speaking or behaving combatively will lead to the mediation ending and the full consequences being issued to both students.
Not all mediations are going to be successful, and that is OK! If there is a chance we can resolve the situation calmly with our words, we need to provide an attempt for our students to do so.
Guide them to compromise if one is available. This works best in situations where both students should own some responsibility in their actions.
If you are seeing a common infraction amongst multiple students sometimes the best course of action is to provide targeted support to those students in the form of behavioral groups.
This is largely how we address our Tier 2 students at my school. We have boys groups and girls groups. We lean on our student support staff for most of these but sometimes outside professionals are brought in to address issues.
Many times these services can be provided at no cost because there are often volunteers from within your community who wish to help at-risk youth. Don’t be afraid to seek help, our communities must rally behind these kids.
My favorite consequences are the ones that don’t disrupt class time. If I must assign detention of some sort I prefer for students to serve outside of the instructional blocks if the situation warrants it.
At my school, we took this idea a step further and added a counseling aspect to this. Our SAFE room (In-School Suspension) teacher is amazing at talking to students about their problems and working through solutions.
So we began to utilize the morning as a time to assign her 1 student a day. This has been very successful as it allows the student to serve the punishment time, not miss class time, and work through the problem that actually led to the consequence.
I credit this solution with being a key component of moving some of our TIer 2 students back into Tier 1.
Every single student in your school should have a staff member they feel comfortable going to if they have an issue. It can be a teacher, coach, admin, counselor, custodian, or an office worker. But they need someone they can approach if something isn’t right.
Very often, students with repeated disciplinary problems don’t feel like they have an ally in the school. So one solution to that problem is to give them one!
Find somebody on your staff that the student can relate to on some level. Then ask the staff member to do daily or weekly check-ins with the student.
This can be formal like a check-in/check-out program or just enough informal conversations to provide the student with some much-needed support.
You’ll find before long that the student seeks out their mentor instead of acting out. That is progress!
I like for staff to remember the Five R’s of restorative solutions when they are dealing with behavioral issues:
If those are the principles that guide your school discipline policies then your staff-student interactions will be more positive overall and you’ll see far fewer referrals.
Teach and reteach your expectations. This is the foundation that makes up quality PBIS best practices in any school. Don’t get frustrated when students fail to meet expectations that you haven’t taught. If they do meet expectations, you're gonna need some rewards that rock to make your reward system go.
What do all of these have in common? They are relationship based solutions. They require the practitioner to be creative when assigning solutions. And most of all they tend to emphasize developing empathy amongst your students. If you can teach students that their actions affect other people, and they must take ownership of that, you can drastically reduce your disciplinary problems.
If your looking to take these concepts a step further you should check out our resources PBIS in Elementary Schools, our Behavior Rubric examples, or on taking PBIS District-wide. Or if you'd like to start on a smaller scale we also have resources on how to start your PBIS program.
Looking for more help with interventions in your school? Check out episode 34 of our podcast where we discussed a practical guide to check-in/check-out for school leaders like you. You should also check out our guide to implementing check-in/check-out with LiveSchool.
What is our goal when we assign consequences for disciplinary infractions? Is it punishment? Is it to make a point? Is it to send a message? Or is it to improve disruptive behavior?
That subtle mindset shift is very beneficial to students' future success. Consequences focus on improving not punishing.
So how do you assign consequences or interventions that improve the behavior going forward? More importantly, how do you create buy-in with students and staff so they understand the goals behind your actions?
This takes a bit of creativity and often can take more time than traditional consequences. But when done with fidelity these strategies to squash disruptive behavior will reduce behavior infractions and thus reduce behavior referrals over time.
Keep reading for a list of examples and how best to implement them in your school.
If you are seeing classroom disruptions and conflicts on a regular basis, you need to provide some tools for your staff to work through those issues in the room.
If you can create a school culture centered around empathy and respect in the classroom, you will reduce the need for an administrator to resolve every dispute.
I suggest you train your staff on the power of restorative circles. They provide a structured system for the teacher to facilitate tough discussions in the classroom.
If done well, you create a community atmosphere in the classroom and this will allow students to talk through issues before they need to become office-managed issues.
When you process a discipline referral, how does that conversation go? Do you read the referral, then check the chart and assign consequences based on the infraction? Or do you talk through the issue with the student and promote empathy and ownership?
I suggest utilizing Restorative Questions when you have these conversations. Try asking the student these questions:
The goal behind this line of questioning is for the student to accept ownership of their actions and then take an active part in deciding the best course of action going forward.
The key to success here is that the referring staff understands the process you are carrying out. Everyone needs training on this process, whether they process referrals or not.
We want our students to learn to solve disputes with words, not with violence. Establish a process for students to have 1v1 discussions to resolve situations before they spiral out of control.
If an infraction has already been committed, I’ll often reduce the punitive consequences if both parties agree to mediation with one of our counselors or mental health professionals.
The key to success here is that both students are willing to participate and that your staff sets very clear ground rules on who is to speak and when. Let them know that speaking or behaving combatively will lead to the mediation ending and the full consequences being issued to both students.
Not all mediations are going to be successful, and that is OK! If there is a chance we can resolve the situation calmly with our words, we need to provide an attempt for our students to do so.
Guide them to compromise if one is available. This works best in situations where both students should own some responsibility in their actions.
If you are seeing a common infraction amongst multiple students sometimes the best course of action is to provide targeted support to those students in the form of behavioral groups.
This is largely how we address our Tier 2 students at my school. We have boys groups and girls groups. We lean on our student support staff for most of these but sometimes outside professionals are brought in to address issues.
Many times these services can be provided at no cost because there are often volunteers from within your community who wish to help at-risk youth. Don’t be afraid to seek help, our communities must rally behind these kids.
My favorite consequences are the ones that don’t disrupt class time. If I must assign detention of some sort I prefer for students to serve outside of the instructional blocks if the situation warrants it.
At my school, we took this idea a step further and added a counseling aspect to this. Our SAFE room (In-School Suspension) teacher is amazing at talking to students about their problems and working through solutions.
So we began to utilize the morning as a time to assign her 1 student a day. This has been very successful as it allows the student to serve the punishment time, not miss class time, and work through the problem that actually led to the consequence.
I credit this solution with being a key component of moving some of our TIer 2 students back into Tier 1.
Every single student in your school should have a staff member they feel comfortable going to if they have an issue. It can be a teacher, coach, admin, counselor, custodian, or an office worker. But they need someone they can approach if something isn’t right.
Very often, students with repeated disciplinary problems don’t feel like they have an ally in the school. So one solution to that problem is to give them one!
Find somebody on your staff that the student can relate to on some level. Then ask the staff member to do daily or weekly check-ins with the student.
This can be formal like a check-in/check-out program or just enough informal conversations to provide the student with some much-needed support.
You’ll find before long that the student seeks out their mentor instead of acting out. That is progress!
I like for staff to remember the Five R’s of restorative solutions when they are dealing with behavioral issues:
If those are the principles that guide your school discipline policies then your staff-student interactions will be more positive overall and you’ll see far fewer referrals.
Teach and reteach your expectations. This is the foundation that makes up quality PBIS best practices in any school. Don’t get frustrated when students fail to meet expectations that you haven’t taught. If they do meet expectations, you're gonna need some rewards that rock to make your reward system go.
What do all of these have in common? They are relationship based solutions. They require the practitioner to be creative when assigning solutions. And most of all they tend to emphasize developing empathy amongst your students. If you can teach students that their actions affect other people, and they must take ownership of that, you can drastically reduce your disciplinary problems.
If your looking to take these concepts a step further you should check out our resources PBIS in Elementary Schools, our Behavior Rubric examples, or on taking PBIS District-wide. Or if you'd like to start on a smaller scale we also have resources on how to start your PBIS program.
Looking for more help with interventions in your school? Check out episode 34 of our podcast where we discussed a practical guide to check-in/check-out for school leaders like you. You should also check out our guide to implementing check-in/check-out with LiveSchool.
What is our goal when we assign consequences for disciplinary infractions? Is it punishment? Is it to make a point? Is it to send a message? Or is it to improve disruptive behavior?
That subtle mindset shift is very beneficial to students' future success. Consequences focus on improving not punishing.
So how do you assign consequences or interventions that improve the behavior going forward? More importantly, how do you create buy-in with students and staff so they understand the goals behind your actions?
This takes a bit of creativity and often can take more time than traditional consequences. But when done with fidelity these strategies to squash disruptive behavior will reduce behavior infractions and thus reduce behavior referrals over time.
Keep reading for a list of examples and how best to implement them in your school.
If you are seeing classroom disruptions and conflicts on a regular basis, you need to provide some tools for your staff to work through those issues in the room.
If you can create a school culture centered around empathy and respect in the classroom, you will reduce the need for an administrator to resolve every dispute.
I suggest you train your staff on the power of restorative circles. They provide a structured system for the teacher to facilitate tough discussions in the classroom.
If done well, you create a community atmosphere in the classroom and this will allow students to talk through issues before they need to become office-managed issues.
When you process a discipline referral, how does that conversation go? Do you read the referral, then check the chart and assign consequences based on the infraction? Or do you talk through the issue with the student and promote empathy and ownership?
I suggest utilizing Restorative Questions when you have these conversations. Try asking the student these questions:
The goal behind this line of questioning is for the student to accept ownership of their actions and then take an active part in deciding the best course of action going forward.
The key to success here is that the referring staff understands the process you are carrying out. Everyone needs training on this process, whether they process referrals or not.
We want our students to learn to solve disputes with words, not with violence. Establish a process for students to have 1v1 discussions to resolve situations before they spiral out of control.
If an infraction has already been committed, I’ll often reduce the punitive consequences if both parties agree to mediation with one of our counselors or mental health professionals.
The key to success here is that both students are willing to participate and that your staff sets very clear ground rules on who is to speak and when. Let them know that speaking or behaving combatively will lead to the mediation ending and the full consequences being issued to both students.
Not all mediations are going to be successful, and that is OK! If there is a chance we can resolve the situation calmly with our words, we need to provide an attempt for our students to do so.
Guide them to compromise if one is available. This works best in situations where both students should own some responsibility in their actions.
If you are seeing a common infraction amongst multiple students sometimes the best course of action is to provide targeted support to those students in the form of behavioral groups.
This is largely how we address our Tier 2 students at my school. We have boys groups and girls groups. We lean on our student support staff for most of these but sometimes outside professionals are brought in to address issues.
Many times these services can be provided at no cost because there are often volunteers from within your community who wish to help at-risk youth. Don’t be afraid to seek help, our communities must rally behind these kids.
My favorite consequences are the ones that don’t disrupt class time. If I must assign detention of some sort I prefer for students to serve outside of the instructional blocks if the situation warrants it.
At my school, we took this idea a step further and added a counseling aspect to this. Our SAFE room (In-School Suspension) teacher is amazing at talking to students about their problems and working through solutions.
So we began to utilize the morning as a time to assign her 1 student a day. This has been very successful as it allows the student to serve the punishment time, not miss class time, and work through the problem that actually led to the consequence.
I credit this solution with being a key component of moving some of our TIer 2 students back into Tier 1.
Every single student in your school should have a staff member they feel comfortable going to if they have an issue. It can be a teacher, coach, admin, counselor, custodian, or an office worker. But they need someone they can approach if something isn’t right.
Very often, students with repeated disciplinary problems don’t feel like they have an ally in the school. So one solution to that problem is to give them one!
Find somebody on your staff that the student can relate to on some level. Then ask the staff member to do daily or weekly check-ins with the student.
This can be formal like a check-in/check-out program or just enough informal conversations to provide the student with some much-needed support.
You’ll find before long that the student seeks out their mentor instead of acting out. That is progress!
I like for staff to remember the Five R’s of restorative solutions when they are dealing with behavioral issues:
If those are the principles that guide your school discipline policies then your staff-student interactions will be more positive overall and you’ll see far fewer referrals.
Teach and reteach your expectations. This is the foundation that makes up quality PBIS best practices in any school. Don’t get frustrated when students fail to meet expectations that you haven’t taught. If they do meet expectations, you're gonna need some rewards that rock to make your reward system go.
What do all of these have in common? They are relationship based solutions. They require the practitioner to be creative when assigning solutions. And most of all they tend to emphasize developing empathy amongst your students. If you can teach students that their actions affect other people, and they must take ownership of that, you can drastically reduce your disciplinary problems.
If your looking to take these concepts a step further you should check out our resources PBIS in Elementary Schools, our Behavior Rubric examples, or on taking PBIS District-wide. Or if you'd like to start on a smaller scale we also have resources on how to start your PBIS program.
Looking for more help with interventions in your school? Check out episode 34 of our podcast where we discussed a practical guide to check-in/check-out for school leaders like you. You should also check out our guide to implementing check-in/check-out with LiveSchool.
What is our goal when we assign consequences for disciplinary infractions? Is it punishment? Is it to make a point? Is it to send a message? Or is it to improve disruptive behavior?
That subtle mindset shift is very beneficial to students' future success. Consequences focus on improving not punishing.
So how do you assign consequences or interventions that improve the behavior going forward? More importantly, how do you create buy-in with students and staff so they understand the goals behind your actions?
This takes a bit of creativity and often can take more time than traditional consequences. But when done with fidelity these strategies to squash disruptive behavior will reduce behavior infractions and thus reduce behavior referrals over time.
Keep reading for a list of examples and how best to implement them in your school.
If you are seeing classroom disruptions and conflicts on a regular basis, you need to provide some tools for your staff to work through those issues in the room.
If you can create a school culture centered around empathy and respect in the classroom, you will reduce the need for an administrator to resolve every dispute.
I suggest you train your staff on the power of restorative circles. They provide a structured system for the teacher to facilitate tough discussions in the classroom.
If done well, you create a community atmosphere in the classroom and this will allow students to talk through issues before they need to become office-managed issues.
When you process a discipline referral, how does that conversation go? Do you read the referral, then check the chart and assign consequences based on the infraction? Or do you talk through the issue with the student and promote empathy and ownership?
I suggest utilizing Restorative Questions when you have these conversations. Try asking the student these questions:
The goal behind this line of questioning is for the student to accept ownership of their actions and then take an active part in deciding the best course of action going forward.
The key to success here is that the referring staff understands the process you are carrying out. Everyone needs training on this process, whether they process referrals or not.
We want our students to learn to solve disputes with words, not with violence. Establish a process for students to have 1v1 discussions to resolve situations before they spiral out of control.
If an infraction has already been committed, I’ll often reduce the punitive consequences if both parties agree to mediation with one of our counselors or mental health professionals.
The key to success here is that both students are willing to participate and that your staff sets very clear ground rules on who is to speak and when. Let them know that speaking or behaving combatively will lead to the mediation ending and the full consequences being issued to both students.
Not all mediations are going to be successful, and that is OK! If there is a chance we can resolve the situation calmly with our words, we need to provide an attempt for our students to do so.
Guide them to compromise if one is available. This works best in situations where both students should own some responsibility in their actions.
If you are seeing a common infraction amongst multiple students sometimes the best course of action is to provide targeted support to those students in the form of behavioral groups.
This is largely how we address our Tier 2 students at my school. We have boys groups and girls groups. We lean on our student support staff for most of these but sometimes outside professionals are brought in to address issues.
Many times these services can be provided at no cost because there are often volunteers from within your community who wish to help at-risk youth. Don’t be afraid to seek help, our communities must rally behind these kids.
My favorite consequences are the ones that don’t disrupt class time. If I must assign detention of some sort I prefer for students to serve outside of the instructional blocks if the situation warrants it.
At my school, we took this idea a step further and added a counseling aspect to this. Our SAFE room (In-School Suspension) teacher is amazing at talking to students about their problems and working through solutions.
So we began to utilize the morning as a time to assign her 1 student a day. This has been very successful as it allows the student to serve the punishment time, not miss class time, and work through the problem that actually led to the consequence.
I credit this solution with being a key component of moving some of our TIer 2 students back into Tier 1.
Every single student in your school should have a staff member they feel comfortable going to if they have an issue. It can be a teacher, coach, admin, counselor, custodian, or an office worker. But they need someone they can approach if something isn’t right.
Very often, students with repeated disciplinary problems don’t feel like they have an ally in the school. So one solution to that problem is to give them one!
Find somebody on your staff that the student can relate to on some level. Then ask the staff member to do daily or weekly check-ins with the student.
This can be formal like a check-in/check-out program or just enough informal conversations to provide the student with some much-needed support.
You’ll find before long that the student seeks out their mentor instead of acting out. That is progress!
I like for staff to remember the Five R’s of restorative solutions when they are dealing with behavioral issues:
If those are the principles that guide your school discipline policies then your staff-student interactions will be more positive overall and you’ll see far fewer referrals.
Teach and reteach your expectations. This is the foundation that makes up quality PBIS best practices in any school. Don’t get frustrated when students fail to meet expectations that you haven’t taught. If they do meet expectations, you're gonna need some rewards that rock to make your reward system go.
What do all of these have in common? They are relationship based solutions. They require the practitioner to be creative when assigning solutions. And most of all they tend to emphasize developing empathy amongst your students. If you can teach students that their actions affect other people, and they must take ownership of that, you can drastically reduce your disciplinary problems.
If your looking to take these concepts a step further you should check out our resources PBIS in Elementary Schools, our Behavior Rubric examples, or on taking PBIS District-wide. Or if you'd like to start on a smaller scale we also have resources on how to start your PBIS program.
Looking for more help with interventions in your school? Check out episode 34 of our podcast where we discussed a practical guide to check-in/check-out for school leaders like you. You should also check out our guide to implementing check-in/check-out with LiveSchool.
Jordan resides in Lexington, Kentucky. He has experience in Public Education as an Administrator, Science Teacher, and as a Coach. He has extensive experience with School Discipline, PBIS, SEL, Restorative Practices, MTSS, and Trauma-Informed Care.
What is our goal when we assign consequences for disciplinary infractions? Is it punishment? Is it to make a point? Is it to send a message? Or is it to improve the behavior?
What is our goal when we assign consequences for disciplinary infractions? Is it punishment? Is it to make a point? Is it to send a message? Or is it to improve disruptive behavior?
That subtle mindset shift is very beneficial to students' future success. Consequences focus on improving not punishing.
So how do you assign consequences or interventions that improve the behavior going forward? More importantly, how do you create buy-in with students and staff so they understand the goals behind your actions?
This takes a bit of creativity and often can take more time than traditional consequences. But when done with fidelity these strategies to squash disruptive behavior will reduce behavior infractions and thus reduce behavior referrals over time.
Keep reading for a list of examples and how best to implement them in your school.
If you are seeing classroom disruptions and conflicts on a regular basis, you need to provide some tools for your staff to work through those issues in the room.
If you can create a school culture centered around empathy and respect in the classroom, you will reduce the need for an administrator to resolve every dispute.
I suggest you train your staff on the power of restorative circles. They provide a structured system for the teacher to facilitate tough discussions in the classroom.
If done well, you create a community atmosphere in the classroom and this will allow students to talk through issues before they need to become office-managed issues.
When you process a discipline referral, how does that conversation go? Do you read the referral, then check the chart and assign consequences based on the infraction? Or do you talk through the issue with the student and promote empathy and ownership?
I suggest utilizing Restorative Questions when you have these conversations. Try asking the student these questions:
The goal behind this line of questioning is for the student to accept ownership of their actions and then take an active part in deciding the best course of action going forward.
The key to success here is that the referring staff understands the process you are carrying out. Everyone needs training on this process, whether they process referrals or not.
We want our students to learn to solve disputes with words, not with violence. Establish a process for students to have 1v1 discussions to resolve situations before they spiral out of control.
If an infraction has already been committed, I’ll often reduce the punitive consequences if both parties agree to mediation with one of our counselors or mental health professionals.
The key to success here is that both students are willing to participate and that your staff sets very clear ground rules on who is to speak and when. Let them know that speaking or behaving combatively will lead to the mediation ending and the full consequences being issued to both students.
Not all mediations are going to be successful, and that is OK! If there is a chance we can resolve the situation calmly with our words, we need to provide an attempt for our students to do so.
Guide them to compromise if one is available. This works best in situations where both students should own some responsibility in their actions.
If you are seeing a common infraction amongst multiple students sometimes the best course of action is to provide targeted support to those students in the form of behavioral groups.
This is largely how we address our Tier 2 students at my school. We have boys groups and girls groups. We lean on our student support staff for most of these but sometimes outside professionals are brought in to address issues.
Many times these services can be provided at no cost because there are often volunteers from within your community who wish to help at-risk youth. Don’t be afraid to seek help, our communities must rally behind these kids.
My favorite consequences are the ones that don’t disrupt class time. If I must assign detention of some sort I prefer for students to serve outside of the instructional blocks if the situation warrants it.
At my school, we took this idea a step further and added a counseling aspect to this. Our SAFE room (In-School Suspension) teacher is amazing at talking to students about their problems and working through solutions.
So we began to utilize the morning as a time to assign her 1 student a day. This has been very successful as it allows the student to serve the punishment time, not miss class time, and work through the problem that actually led to the consequence.
I credit this solution with being a key component of moving some of our TIer 2 students back into Tier 1.
Every single student in your school should have a staff member they feel comfortable going to if they have an issue. It can be a teacher, coach, admin, counselor, custodian, or an office worker. But they need someone they can approach if something isn’t right.
Very often, students with repeated disciplinary problems don’t feel like they have an ally in the school. So one solution to that problem is to give them one!
Find somebody on your staff that the student can relate to on some level. Then ask the staff member to do daily or weekly check-ins with the student.
This can be formal like a check-in/check-out program or just enough informal conversations to provide the student with some much-needed support.
You’ll find before long that the student seeks out their mentor instead of acting out. That is progress!
I like for staff to remember the Five R’s of restorative solutions when they are dealing with behavioral issues:
If those are the principles that guide your school discipline policies then your staff-student interactions will be more positive overall and you’ll see far fewer referrals.
Teach and reteach your expectations. This is the foundation that makes up quality PBIS best practices in any school. Don’t get frustrated when students fail to meet expectations that you haven’t taught. If they do meet expectations, you're gonna need some rewards that rock to make your reward system go.
What do all of these have in common? They are relationship based solutions. They require the practitioner to be creative when assigning solutions. And most of all they tend to emphasize developing empathy amongst your students. If you can teach students that their actions affect other people, and they must take ownership of that, you can drastically reduce your disciplinary problems.
If your looking to take these concepts a step further you should check out our resources PBIS in Elementary Schools, our Behavior Rubric examples, or on taking PBIS District-wide. Or if you'd like to start on a smaller scale we also have resources on how to start your PBIS program.
Looking for more help with interventions in your school? Check out episode 34 of our podcast where we discussed a practical guide to check-in/check-out for school leaders like you. You should also check out our guide to implementing check-in/check-out with LiveSchool.
What is our goal when we assign consequences for disciplinary infractions? Is it punishment? Is it to make a point? Is it to send a message? Or is it to improve the behavior?
What is our goal when we assign consequences for disciplinary infractions? Is it punishment? Is it to make a point? Is it to send a message? Or is it to improve disruptive behavior?
That subtle mindset shift is very beneficial to students' future success. Consequences focus on improving not punishing.
So how do you assign consequences or interventions that improve the behavior going forward? More importantly, how do you create buy-in with students and staff so they understand the goals behind your actions?
This takes a bit of creativity and often can take more time than traditional consequences. But when done with fidelity these strategies to squash disruptive behavior will reduce behavior infractions and thus reduce behavior referrals over time.
Keep reading for a list of examples and how best to implement them in your school.
If you are seeing classroom disruptions and conflicts on a regular basis, you need to provide some tools for your staff to work through those issues in the room.
If you can create a school culture centered around empathy and respect in the classroom, you will reduce the need for an administrator to resolve every dispute.
I suggest you train your staff on the power of restorative circles. They provide a structured system for the teacher to facilitate tough discussions in the classroom.
If done well, you create a community atmosphere in the classroom and this will allow students to talk through issues before they need to become office-managed issues.
When you process a discipline referral, how does that conversation go? Do you read the referral, then check the chart and assign consequences based on the infraction? Or do you talk through the issue with the student and promote empathy and ownership?
I suggest utilizing Restorative Questions when you have these conversations. Try asking the student these questions:
The goal behind this line of questioning is for the student to accept ownership of their actions and then take an active part in deciding the best course of action going forward.
The key to success here is that the referring staff understands the process you are carrying out. Everyone needs training on this process, whether they process referrals or not.
We want our students to learn to solve disputes with words, not with violence. Establish a process for students to have 1v1 discussions to resolve situations before they spiral out of control.
If an infraction has already been committed, I’ll often reduce the punitive consequences if both parties agree to mediation with one of our counselors or mental health professionals.
The key to success here is that both students are willing to participate and that your staff sets very clear ground rules on who is to speak and when. Let them know that speaking or behaving combatively will lead to the mediation ending and the full consequences being issued to both students.
Not all mediations are going to be successful, and that is OK! If there is a chance we can resolve the situation calmly with our words, we need to provide an attempt for our students to do so.
Guide them to compromise if one is available. This works best in situations where both students should own some responsibility in their actions.
If you are seeing a common infraction amongst multiple students sometimes the best course of action is to provide targeted support to those students in the form of behavioral groups.
This is largely how we address our Tier 2 students at my school. We have boys groups and girls groups. We lean on our student support staff for most of these but sometimes outside professionals are brought in to address issues.
Many times these services can be provided at no cost because there are often volunteers from within your community who wish to help at-risk youth. Don’t be afraid to seek help, our communities must rally behind these kids.
My favorite consequences are the ones that don’t disrupt class time. If I must assign detention of some sort I prefer for students to serve outside of the instructional blocks if the situation warrants it.
At my school, we took this idea a step further and added a counseling aspect to this. Our SAFE room (In-School Suspension) teacher is amazing at talking to students about their problems and working through solutions.
So we began to utilize the morning as a time to assign her 1 student a day. This has been very successful as it allows the student to serve the punishment time, not miss class time, and work through the problem that actually led to the consequence.
I credit this solution with being a key component of moving some of our TIer 2 students back into Tier 1.
Every single student in your school should have a staff member they feel comfortable going to if they have an issue. It can be a teacher, coach, admin, counselor, custodian, or an office worker. But they need someone they can approach if something isn’t right.
Very often, students with repeated disciplinary problems don’t feel like they have an ally in the school. So one solution to that problem is to give them one!
Find somebody on your staff that the student can relate to on some level. Then ask the staff member to do daily or weekly check-ins with the student.
This can be formal like a check-in/check-out program or just enough informal conversations to provide the student with some much-needed support.
You’ll find before long that the student seeks out their mentor instead of acting out. That is progress!
I like for staff to remember the Five R’s of restorative solutions when they are dealing with behavioral issues:
If those are the principles that guide your school discipline policies then your staff-student interactions will be more positive overall and you’ll see far fewer referrals.
Teach and reteach your expectations. This is the foundation that makes up quality PBIS best practices in any school. Don’t get frustrated when students fail to meet expectations that you haven’t taught. If they do meet expectations, you're gonna need some rewards that rock to make your reward system go.
What do all of these have in common? They are relationship based solutions. They require the practitioner to be creative when assigning solutions. And most of all they tend to emphasize developing empathy amongst your students. If you can teach students that their actions affect other people, and they must take ownership of that, you can drastically reduce your disciplinary problems.
If your looking to take these concepts a step further you should check out our resources PBIS in Elementary Schools, our Behavior Rubric examples, or on taking PBIS District-wide. Or if you'd like to start on a smaller scale we also have resources on how to start your PBIS program.
Looking for more help with interventions in your school? Check out episode 34 of our podcast where we discussed a practical guide to check-in/check-out for school leaders like you. You should also check out our guide to implementing check-in/check-out with LiveSchool.
All the behavior resources you need to create the positive culture your school community deserves.
