School Climate

 

The Los Angeles Unified School district is committed to providing students a vigorous education that promotes opportunities to select college of career paths that will lead them to becoming productive members of society. All Los Angeles Unified School District students will attend schools with climates that focus on safety, teaching, and learning, interpersonal relationships, and the the institutional environment that influence student learning and well-being. These positive school climates will offer:

• School-Wide Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (SWPBIS)
• LAUSD will implement alternatives to suspension along with the positive behavior interventions in the Discipline Foundation Policy. Appropriate to prevention and intervention approaches provide accountability and reconciliation through understanding the impact of the discipline incident and repairing the harm caused through a shared decision-making process.
• Alternatives to suspension and positive behavior interventions and supports
• Alternatives to suspension strategies will be utilized for all students and in a consistent and age-appropriate manner prior to any suspensions except those limited offenses where suspension is required under California Education Code 4891.5(c). As of 2013, no student will be suspended or expelled for a "willful defiance) (4890D(k) offense.
• School Discipline and school-based arrest and citation data available for viewing
• LAUSD will publish monthly in and out-of-school suspension opportunity transfer, expulsion, citation, and school-based arrest data for the school-site or the District. Such data, when applicable and available, will be disaggergated by subgroups, including race, ethnicity, English Learner status, disability, gender, socioeconomic status and offense, but provided in a way to maintain the privacy of individual students.
• Restorative Justice (RI) approaches that resolve student interpersonal conflict
• Beginning in 2015-2016 schools will have developed and begun implementation of Restorative Justice (RI) approaches, when appropriate, that resolve school disciplinary incidents by having personnel trained in restorative strategies and all parties involved willingly come together, identify the harm that was caused and develop an agreement on how to restore harmony. Through the restorative process, the group develops a shared agreement for repairing harm and addressing root causes to prevent future harm. Restorative Justice (RJ) approaches may be used as intervention and Support (SWPBIS) policy for all school disciplinary incidents unless a recommendation for expulsion is required as under California Education Code Section 48915 or when safety is at risk.
• A District SWPBIS Task Force
• The SWPBIS Task Force shall include a teacher, student, administrator and parent representatives from each Educational Service Center as well as members from community organizations to make recommendations, and will make recommendations for implementing a District-wide culture of positive and Restorative Justice (RJ) approaches to working with students, staff, and parents/guardians.
• Guidelines regarding the roles and responsibilities of School Police Officers on campus
• Students have the right to safe and healthy school environments that minimize the involvement of law enforcement, probation, and the juvenile and criminal justice system, to the greatest extent possible and when legally feasible.
• A system to file a formal complain if School-Wide Positive Behavior Intervention and Support is not implemented
• Students and parents/guardians have the right to file a federal complaint if SWPBIS is not implemented within 60 days of a request.

 

Board Resolution 2013 School Discipline Policy and School Climate Bill of Rights Adopted by the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education on May, 14, 2013.

 

Title IX and Nondiscrimination refer to federal and state anti-discrimination laws that ensure equality in education.

Follow the link to read the full text of LAUSD's Non-Discrimination policies. LAUSD Policy

 

Assembly Bill 500 was recently approved by the Governor and adds language to Education Code Section 44050. To learn more about the Code of Conduct link here.