The Student Behavior and School Climate Task Force holds its third meeting seeking ways Delaware should handle the increase in student behavior issues.
Delaware Department of Education Education Associate Rosie Morales presented the committee with various data points on school discipline.
Morales notes there were 37,000 offenses in 2022 that resulted in suspension or expulsion, with out-of-school suspensions without services being the highest discipline tool utilized statewide.
Committee Vice Chair Sherae’a Moore (D-Middletown) and State Sen. Eric Buckson (R-Dover South) both expressed concerns about the ineffectiveness of out-of-school suspensions, but the question of what alternatives to pursue still remains.
“Out-of-school suspension is the most ineffective model of discipline you can use. The only time it should be used, in my opinion, is when the child is a danger to the school or there’s a legal aspect that requires them to be out of school," Buckson said.
He went on to argue that more effective in-school suspension programs are needed, but other committee members did not offer comment on alternate solutions.
While the data could be broken down by county, Committee Chair Bryan Townsend (D-Newark) expressed his continued frustrations with not being able to see data specific to school districts.
“I would like to know, is there a district that just does transportation and bus behavior policy better than others? Is there a district that’s figured it out? Is there a district that has good models? Is there a district that monitors and intervenes early on before the little things turn into big things?" he asked.
Townsend believes stakeholders seem to not be “excited” to release that data, but voices during public comment argued the legislators should hold the Department of Education accountable in providing it.
The task force plans to hear a presentation on multi-tiered systems of support at its next meeting later this month.
