Soon, parents in the Texas school district might be required to enroll in a program to assist their wayward kids.
Dallas Independent School District is proposing a revision to the student code of conduct that would give troubled students additional options.
The district’s proposed code of conduct modification (DAEP) includes two alternative education options other than placing a student in a discipline alternative education program.
One alternative is six hours of Saturday school tutoring, volunteer work, or a special project for the students.
According to the district, a parent or guardian would also have to attend three hours of sessions that provide support and guidance for areas of the student’s concern and evaluate the student’s behavior and academic development.
Trustees will vote on changes to the code of conduct after a meeting on June 27.
According to Keisha Crowder Davis, the district’s director of student engagement and support, the goal is to provide school administrators with another option to manage behavior issues while still assisting students. She added, “We’ve taken the restorative approach as opposed to always penalizing our students.”
Ben Jones, the Thomas Jefferson High School principal who served on the code of conduct board, told the media that the purpose of the work options is for students to be purposely ambiguous because it gives us some space to be creative.
This option does not include serious disciplinary offenses such as drug possession or assault. The proposal builds on Dallas ISD’s years-long disciplinary reform initiatives.
In 2017, the district implemented a policy banning out-of-school suspensions for students from pre-K through third grade. In June 2021, it became the first large urban school system to do away with suspension across the board and substitute visits to Reser centers, where students can stay in school and work on their behavior.
According to a record released earlier this month by the nonprofit Commit Partnership, the district’s suspension and reset center placement rate decreased by 80% between 2019 and 2023.
According to Miguel Solis, the nonprofit’s chief of staff and a former Dallas ISD trustee, “We must understand, that a one-size fits-all disciplinary tactics is not beneficial to of our students.”
“By providing more personalized and structured strategies such as reset centers, we can eliminate the punishments that continue far into the future.”
