In schools with a police presence, arrest rates more than doubled compared to those without one, new research from the U.S. Government Accountability Office declares.

Similar outcomes were found when the researchers accounted for race. Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Black and American Indian/Alaska Native students were arrested at rates two to three times higher than those of white students. The data reflects Department of Education data from the 2017-18 school year, the most recent available data.

“Our analysis and Education’s own guidance recognize that students can experience even greater adverse consequences as their race, gender, and disability statuses overlap,” the report reads.

The report also references recent investigations by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights surrounding disparities in disciplinary practices in several school districts. Most recently, an investigation concluded that the Pasco County School District in Florida engaged in “disability discrimination” under federal law. The Justice Department stated that “the district routinely relied on suspensions and referrals to law enforcement to respond to students’ disability-related behaviors that it could have addressed through proper behavioral interventions and support.”

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Recommendations

In light of these findings, the GAO offers three recommendations for the Department of Education, including:

• Collecting arrest and referral data, by race, for students with disabilities who receive services under Section 504.
• Disclosing the limitations of its 2021-22 arrest data. This includes confirming and disclosing which definitions K12 districts used or specifying that arrest data for that year is not comparable among districts.
• Clearly informing school districts about future changes to arrest and referral data in its civil rights data collection.

“Education’s civil rights data are a critical tool for helping OCR, policymakers, researchers, schools, parents and key stakeholders understand and address potential disparities in arrest and referral rates among various groups of students,” the report concludes.

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I know what it’s like to live the reality behind these statistics. I was once a director of counseling services for a district with a heart-wrenching problem: a suicide rate that was nearly 30x the national average. Ultimately, what helped us face this crisis was getting upstream and identifying struggling students before their mental health problems became acute.

How did we do this? Through gathering data about online student behavior. Let’s face it: many students will open up to search engines and social forums long before they seek help from counselors, teachers or parents. Programs that track and surface relevant student activity can help under-resourced districts and counseling teams, and—as I’ve seen in my own work—they can quite literally save lives.

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It’s not enough to have access to this data, however. You need to know how to use it. Here are a few best practices that helped my district turn what initially felt like an overwhelming amount of data into manageable signals and meaningful action.

1. Adjust your notification settings. As you set up your program, think about which notifications will be most important for your counselors or team and adjust your settings accordingly. That way you can ease in and be sure you’re only receiving notifications about searches and activity that truly require your attention.
2. Map mental health data to responder triage phases. Too much data can feel like noise. Sorting it into a familiar framework helps. For us, mapping online behavior to the four phases of suicidality meant we could quickly identify the students who were most at risk.
3. Contextualize the data and drive meaningful interventions. An isolated notification about a search term in a single browser window simply doesn’t tell you that much. If can pair this with information about what the student was doing before and after that search, you’ll have a much better idea of how to proceed. It is also helpful to have a centralized data dashboard that will provide actionable insights so you can effectively spot trends and know where to apply resources.
4. Separate mental health data from other behavioral data. Some programs allow you to monitor for mental health-related data and other risky online behavior, such as looking up explicit content. But this can be a distraction. Certain searches may be inappropriate for school, but they’re not an indicator of mental health struggles.

Just two weeks into launching this program, I received an “Active Planning” alert notifying me that a student was searching terms like, “How much pain medication does it take to die?”

I could not reach her parents or other listed contacts, so I drove to her home address. The student had a large bottle of medication and a glass of water on her kitchen table. I was able to intervene just in time.

From that moment, I understood how powerful this kind of data could be. My team worked to move toward helping students earlier in their struggles with mental health, and our district began successfully implementing the best practices listed here. Over three years, we reduced the number of students deemed high risk for self-harm from 50 to eight.

With so many students in crisis, counseling teams need to be both empathetic and strategic in how we approach our work. Ultimately, being smart about how we gather and respond to this kind of data will help us identify—and take action to help—the students who need it most.

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As a character development expert and educator for more than 25 years, I can attest to the profound positive changes I see in students every day when they are supported with the right character development frameworks. A robust body of research indicates that character education is an effective tool for reducing the incidence of misbehavior by students, with meta-analyses showing that it promotes better education outcomes and higher levels of integrity, compassion, self-discipline and other positive, pro-social traits.

Over the years, through collaborations with other leaders in the field of character development in school and sports, such as Dr. Marvin Berkowitz, Dr. Mindy Bier and Dr. David Shields, my approach to character education has solidified around two essential pieces: the “being” of character (i.e., modeling good behavior for students) and the “doing” of character (i.e., explicit intentional work with students to cultivate their own character).

The “being” of character

Middle and high school are some of the most formative years in the lives of young people. And aside from parents, school educators—including teachers and coaches—have the most lasting impact on the holistic development of our youth. Being the best versions of themselves as role models gives students indisputable evidence of the value of high character in the real world.

Centering through PRIMED

One way educators might apply the “being” of character is with the PRIMED for Character Development model. This framework was intended as a daily self-assessment tool for educators who want to show up as their best self for their students, requiring only a few minutes of preparation and reflection each day. PRIMED emphasizes six key principles:

1. Purpose and Prioritization: Why are you working to be your best for students? What will the outcome be years from now?
2.  Relationships: “Kids don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” How are you cultivating relationships with students?
3. Intrinsic Motivation: Educators need reasons to commit to high-character behavior beyond external rewards or punishments—these won’t be enough to carry them through all the tough moments in school. What are your motivators?
4. Modeling: Are you able to demonstrate the behaviors you want to see in students?
5. Empowerment: Are you giving students opportunities to lead, so they can apply what they’ve learned on their own initiative?
6. Development (Long-Term): Are we, as educators, just hoping to get through the day, or are we committed to long-term development of our students?

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Again and again, I’ve heard from teachers and athletic directors how powerful PRIMED has been and how it has helped them center what is most important for long-term character development.

The “doing” of character

Modeling goodness for students is essential for them to find relevance in the real-world value of character development programs, but it’s not sufficient. They also need to practice positive character themselves. At IMG Academy, we rely on research-backed programs to shape this component of character education for students, programs that educators could adapt to their own needs and schools.

Growing through the 12 CViL Virtues

The Cultivating Virtues in Leaders (CViL) framework emphasizes 12 interconnected values contributing to the positive character changes we seek to see in students. There is ample research that increasing students’ understanding, sophistication and growth in these virtues also leads to greater success and fulfillment in youth into adulthood. In practice, educators can promote these virtues through intentional programming designed to help students embrace a growth mindset toward each of these virtues.

1. Purpose
2. Integrity
3. Gratitude
4. Courage and Communication
5. Joy and Balance
6. Compassion
7. Humility
8. Forgiveness
9. Empowerment
10. Embracing Diversity
11. Foresight
12. Service and Legacy

By scheduling around the estimated 24 bi-weekly “advisory” sessions each school year, educators committed to building stronger character in their students can focus on each of the 12 CViL virtues for two weeks. I recommend an array of delivery mechanisms for the 12 virtues to introduce, deepen understanding of, and bring relevance to each.

In practice, this could mean incorporating video clips, student partner sharing, ethical scenarios, cross-aged group mentoring and community service projects in advisory lesson planning. Remember, make the framework your own based on your school’s values and the needs of your students and lean on the six key principles in PRIMED to support student growth.

The years ahead

By reframing character education through the lenses of ‘being’ and ‘doing’, school administrators can partner with educators to curb the rising rates of misbehavior in classrooms and, at the same time, cultivate virtues and character strengths in their students, as well as a thriving school culture. This supports a wider endeavor to promote goodness in society and secure the well-being of the next generation of innovators, leaders, and citizens.

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That’s according to a recent survey of 1,000 parents by Lingokids, a learning app. The researchers sought to understand how much screen time kids get over the summer and for what purpose.

Despite the low age range of the kids sampled, one might consider their screen time pretty significant. Nearly 62% of children spend more than one hour daily on a device. Another 32% spend more than two hours in front of a screen each day, according to parents surveyed.

However, not every kid’s screen time is wasted on what some parents would consider “brain rot.” In fact, 60% of parents believe that their children consider education screen time fun and playful, and 56% say educational apps help prevent the “summer slide” associated with the extended time away from school.

Parents were also asked how they leverage technology and other methods to mitigate learning loss over the break. Here’s what they said:

• By letting them use/play educational apps and games (55.66%)
• Teaching them at home (44.93%)
• Educational camps (33.49%)
• TV shows/movies (31.23%)
• Summer school (30.87%)
• I don’t worry about my child/ren experiencing “the summer slide” (15.49%)

“We know that reading, math and other academic skills can see slippage when school is out of session for the summer break, while parent involvement is important, interactive learning apps may be effective in moderating summer learning loss by sustaining practice in core areas like English and STEM,” Chair of the Lingokids Advisory Board Suzanne Barchers said in a statement.

Parents also broke down the content their child engages with on their devices. Educational apps (66.15%) emerged as the most common content type, followed by:

• Games apps (those with no learning objectives (54.83%)
• Video streaming apps (46.48%)
• Communication apps (37.54%)
• Social media (36.11%)
• Music apps (32.66%)

DA coverage

For a more in-depth look at how kids are spending their summers on their devices, click here. Or, check out District Administration’s recent coverage on student achievement and well-being below:

• Marlin ISD was failing. Now this superintendent is changing trajectories
• Student report card: What kids think of their schools
• Reversing pandemic slides: How does your state compare?

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In 2021–22, 7.3 million students ages 3–21 (the equivalent of 15% of all public school students) received special education and/or related services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). A recent Washington state survey showed that the majority of students with intellectual disabilities don’t move on to college or employment a year after graduation. How do we help these students in school and transitioning to adulthood and a life they love?

Support mental health access and awareness

A study by the American Academy of Pediatrics showed that students with autism and intellectual disability were more likely to receive services such as speech and occupational therapy but less likely to receive mental health services. As we prepare special needs students to journey to adulthood, we must ensure they have the support to maximize their skills and strengths.

Social-emotional and behavioral support are critical components of this journey for special education students. For students who face a roadblock, we should ask ourselves, “Are there social-emotional or behavioral challenges that may need to be addressed?”

Build prosocial skills

Many prosocial skills are at the heart of what it takes to navigate daily life as an adult. Some students with exceptional needs might need support with skills such as following directions, getting along with others and problem-solving effectively. This support could come in the form of breaking down components of and explaining school-wide expectations, building skills in classrooms or small groups, practice and monitoring.

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I’m reminded of a student who would shout, “No!” and sometimes run out of the classroom when instructions were given too rapidly. After skill-building and practice, the student learned coping skills, including asking for written instructions. When nurtured and developed, these skills can transform lives, making for successful and fulfilled adults.

Facilitate and build self-advocacy skills

Transition-age youth should attend their IEP team meeting and participate in planning. IDEA requires that students with a disability be invited to attend the IEP meeting if the meeting includes consideration of postsecondary goals and the transition services needed to assist them in reaching those goals.

For students, attending their own IEP and hearing and sharing about their strengths and needs can be daunting and may be made more approachable through preparation. Social narratives, role plays, and rehearsals are several available strategies. Additionally, counselors can utilize strategies such as solution-focused brief counseling (Sklare, 2014) and motivational interviewing (Miller & Rollnick, 2013) to build self-advocacy skills with students.

The transition to adult life doesn’t start at age 16

We often think of the transition to adult life starting in high school, but it begins much earlier. When we highlight transition skills with our students, we build and deepen the connections between “what we do today” and “how it will impact us in the future.”

These links may assist a student in learning to manage frustration over, for example, not being first in line to the cafeteria. Students develop the patience needed to navigate a busy checkout line to purchase a new shirt for a job interview. Making these connections explicit for students with exceptional needs is crucial and something counselors and educators can do daily.

We have a unique opportunity to support more than academics. We can assist our students in recognizing and growing life-long skills that will carry through to adulthood. That climb to Mt. Everest is challenging but working together to take our students to the top is worth it.

The post 3 ways to improve postsecondary planning for special education students appeared first on District Administration.

In fact, a Gallup poll in 2022 found that 44% of K-12 parents fear for their child’s physical safety while at school. This means nearly half of parents don’t believe that their children’s schools are secure enough to protect them. The issue of safety in schools is certainly a complex one, but there are proven measures that can be taken that are readily available to school administrators.

The first question we must ask is, “What is it, physically, about our schools that leaves us vulnerable?” This question can introduce a variety of responses. To combat vulnerabilities, people may look to our governing bodies to implement policy change while others may draw attention to the role of personal responsibility of school employees in maintaining security, many of which overlook the physical state of community buildings—more specifically their doors and entrances—and jump straight to costly security add-ons.

In 2020, the Department of Homeland Security ran an active shooter simulation, in which classroom doors that lock when closed had a “significant impact” on deterring the threat of the shooter. To date, no active shooter has ever breached a classroom door that was securely latched and locked.

Despite this simple safety measure, one in four U.S. public schools still lack classroom doors that lock from the inside, highlighting the need to increase public awareness of effective security enhancements and door safety practices. While ensuring all schools have secure door openings seems like a straightforward solution, there is currently no national standard for secure openings in America leaving students, faculty and staff at risk.

To address the lack of necessary standards for secure openings, the Door and Hardware Institute in collaboration with the Door Security and Safety Foundation recently released new guidelines, “Are Your Door Openings Secure?” to equip not only school teachers and administrators but also building managers and property owners with the knowledge and resources to confidently secure their buildings.

These guidelines are meant to serve as a resource on the best practices for securing community spaces; within the guidelines, there are recommended guidelines, outlining three different levels to securing openings, that teachers and administrators may use to assess their current security capabilities at the opening and inform them on proper operational procedures.

Our goal is to make schools not only aware of the importance of door security, but also to embolden them to first, educate themselves, and second, facilitate steps toward improving their spaces with properly secure openings. We know the impact implementing these guidelines can have, and we are committed to supporting school administrators as they create safe learning environments, one door opening at a time.

If you would like to learn more about our guidelines, please visit DoorSecuritySafety.org.

The post Safety in schools: Make it simple, one door at time appeared first on District Administration.

In a pattern that has held steady since 2021, teachers said they worked longer hours for lower pay than adults in similar industries, the survey found. Respondents reported working an average of 53 hours per week, with about 15 of these hours “outside of their contracts.”

Just over half of similar working adults—who reported working an average 44 hours per week—described their base pay as adequate; only 36% of teachers shared that sentiment about their salaries. Teachers who felt underpaid said a raise of at least $16,000 would bring them level with other working adults.

Teachers expressed other frustrations, citing student misbehavior and administrative work outside of teaching as major sources of stress this year.

“This is RAND’s fourth consecutive year collecting data that raise concerns about high stress and low pay in the teacher workforce,” Sy Doan, lead author of the report, said in a statement. “Although teacher well-being seems to have stabilized at pre-pandemic levels, our data raise questions about the sustainability of the profession for Black teachers and female teachers in particular.”

Here are some other notable findings from the State of the Teacher survey:

• Black teachers reported working significantly more hours per week and were less satisfied with their workloads.
• Black teachers were also more likely to report inadequate base pay, significantly lower base pay and intentions to leave their job.
• Female teachers reported significantly higher rates of frequent job-related stress and burnout than male teachers, a consistent pattern since 2021.
• Female teachers also reported significantly lower base pay.
• Teachers (24%) are about as likely to report intending to leave their job as are working adults (22%).

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The devices cherished by students and adults alike now face bans in entire states and some of the nation’s largest districts. On Tuesday, Los Angeles USD approved the nation’s largest districtwide cellphone ban, which will take effect in January and also targets social media.

“It is time to formulate a legal strategy that contemplates, but is not restricted to, litigation against social media entities that use algorithms designed to directly appeal and eventually develop, an unhealthy addiction with mental and physical deleterious consequences for our youth,” Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho said in a statement. “When coupled with social media, phones are a harmful vehicle that negatively impacts young people.”

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“Kids no longer have the opportunity to just be kids,” added LAUSD school board member Nick Melvoin, the sponsor of the ban. “I’m hoping this resolution will help students not only focus in class but also give them a chance to interact and engage more with each other—and just be kids.”

The entire state of California may soon vanquish cellphones from its K12 system. Gov. Gavin Newsom revealed to Politico this week that he intends to work with state lawmakers in the coming months to “severely restrict” the presence of phones in public schools.

Newsom spoke to the news outlet the day after U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy called for placing warning labels on social media to alert children and parents to potential health risks that include depression and anxiety. “When children and teens are in school, they should be focused on their studies—not their screens,” Newsom told Politico.

Florida, Indiana and Ohio have enacted statewide restrictions on cellphones in schools. Lawmakers in South Carolina are—with full support from education officials and teachers—embedding cellphone restrictions in the state budget. To continue to receive state funding, districts must adopt a ban that will soon be created by the state’s department of education, The74 reported.

LAUSD was not the only district that took action on Tuesday. Marietta City Schools in Georgia also banned cellphones for middle school students in a unanimous school board vote.

“We really want kids to be focused on learning,” said Superintendent Grant Rivera in a statement reported by FOX 5. “Cellphones, smartwatches, and social media have significant impacts on our students’ learning and mental health. School should be a place to learn and grow; that can’t happen if students are distracted by their phones.”

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In an op-ed published in The New York Times on Monday, Murthy wrote that the mental health crisis among America’s youth is an emergency, and social media is a primary cause.

“Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours,” he wrote. “Additionally, nearly half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.”

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Murthy also contends that while a surgeon general’s warning might better inform parents and keep kids off social media, more needs to be done. He also argues legislation is necessary to protect young people from online dangers, including:

• Online harassment
• Abuse
• Exploitation
• Exposure to extreme violence and sexual content

Congress should act to prevent social media companies from collecting sensitive, personal data and to restrict push notifications, autoplay, infinite scroll and other features “which prey on developing brains and contribute to excessive use,” Murthy asserted.

Companies should also be forced to publicize any data they’ve collected on social media’s health effects. As of now, there is no such requirement. “While the platforms claim they are making their products safer, Americans need more than words,” he concluded. “We need proof.”

The post Warning: Is social media now as bad as smoking? appeared first on District Administration.

At the same time, 80% of parents and students rely on school districts to provide wellness and mental health resources. As a result, it is more important than ever for districts to maintain strong communication with families to build a strong, healthy school community that is inclusive of those family members. We believe students’ families are helpers, making them key partners in K-12 education ans mental health. Based on my conversations with a wide range of school communities, here are a few keys to improving family engagement.

Making campus inviting

A campus should be inviting to family members and students’ other loved ones. Clark County School District, for example, uses the National PTA’s National Standards for Family-School Partnerships, a set of guidelines that lay out how schools and family organizations can work together to support student success. The standards are built on four “I Principles” of Transformative Family Engagement:

• Inclusive: Does the school embrace and value diverse perspectives?
• Individualized: Does it meet the unique needs of each family and child, rather than focusing on a cookie-cutter approach that may miss individual needs
• Integrated: Does the communication strategy and the school align with the school system as a whole?
• Impactful: Does the school provide the resources families need in order to support student successes?

Clark County also offers a variety of events that include the whole family. Programs, such as the University Family Learning and Family Engagement Centers, aim to provide students and families with educational, leadership and networking information. This includes volunteer and mentorship opportunities, digital academic support in English and Spanish and weekend and evening gatherings designed to bring families into the schools.

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The district also encourages family-led learning and celebrates regular “ceremonies of achievements” to recognize student accomplishments and has also collaborated with The Cook Center for Human Connection to develop and sustain “calm rooms” for students. These spaces help students regulate their emotions during the school day and can be inviting settings for family meetings that make caregivers feel welcomed with relaxing sensory experiences.

Engaging families emotionally

Effective leadership is anchored by emotional connection. Psychologist Kimberly Applewhite notes that emotions help leaders understand the experiences of others. Without that sense of emotional connection, families may feel disconnected from the school environment. To clearly convey that families are part of an ongoing conversation about their child’s education, consider:

• Do you have an outlet to receive feedback?
• Are families taking advantage of that outlet and regularly connecting with your district?

John Bates, a communication expert from Executive Speaking Success, offers neurobiological principles that can prove incredibly helpful when communicating with families:

• Live with the message: Stay with what you have created and the message you have crafted, rather than giving in to the “monkey mind” that has negative things to say about your audience’s perception of your message. Living with the message helps you get a deeper insight into your message and may even provide a fresh look.
• Rearrange and restructure: Your initial take on your communication will likely be too long. That means you can rearrange and restructure it to make it more powerful. Good! Restructure it, read it out loud and cut anything that isn’t directly relevant to the topic at hand.
• Focus on the opening and closing: These segments are the most memorable of any communication and they are what families are most likely to zero in on when they connect with you.

Meeting parents where they live: Online

While face-to-face events and personal emails are powerful ways to build an emotional connection with families, today’s parents will most often interact with their schools through an online portal.

What does your online portal look like for staff and family members? Does it provide timely information and intuitive organization for caretakers to access information quickly and easily? Can they elect to receive messages via text?

If your website isn’t streamlined, chances are, it’s creating a communication barrier between your school and your students’ families. Make sure there are resources, including free community assets and information families may need to know about, on the website. The ParentGuidance.org emblem, for example, can be added to any school website as a no-cost resource for families to get answers to tough questions and emotional scenarios students go through.

The goal of family engagement is not to serve your students’ loved ones but to gain helpers. Engaged family members are more connected to their children’s schools and better prepared to offer the support students need. Effective family engagement starts with a relationship-building process focused on listening.

Inspiring your staff, including valued educators, to implement some of these tools begins with your district administration, then travels down. When staff members have the tools and assets they need to make families and students feel welcomed—and to support mental health—there is an increase in the exchange of ideas, the expression of emotion and the ability to resolve potential problems together.

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