The Student Behavior and School Climate Task Force convened for the first time Thursday to begin discussing topics it would like to focus on to better address student behavioral issues.
Task force member Alison Parey, a Christina School District teacher, expressed her desire to see more professional development centered around restorative practices for student behavior.
“A lot of my background and training in all of that came from me seeking out that training outside of what my district was offering. I'm not sure what the experiences are for other districts, but just being able to provide staff with the level of training for how you expect them to implement the practices that there are," she said.
Another teacher, Donna Husten from Sussex Technical High School, brought up looking further into student absences.
"If we overlook absences with attendance policies or whatever each district puts in place, then we're not providing college and career readiness. You can't just not go to class in college, and you can't just not go to work. They won't be successful," Husten said. "I think that really looking at some of those issues - chronic absences, not just from a truancy standpoint, but from ‘what’s the root cause, and what can the schools do to help improve that?’”
One issue repeatedly raised by task force members was the effect of outside influence on students and their behavior.
Delaware State Education Association president Stephanie Ingram noted things like family dynamics, food insecurity and home instability can all play a role in how students show up in the classroom.
“Students come to school with invisible backpacks. They bring what’s happening outside of the school and inside of their communities with them, so we need to think about the social factors that are going into some of these behaviors and how we can prevent some of those behaviors from happening," Ingram said.
Red Clay School District superintendent Dorrell Green also noted the effects of technology and social media, as well as substance abuse problems in older students.
Task Force Chair State Sen. Bryan Townsend (D-Newark) said they will develop these focal points with an emphasis on topics that could spur legislative action.
The task force expects to hold ten to 11 meetings over the next seven months before submitting their final recommendations in November.
