The Westchester community calls upon our public schools to adopt disciplinary policies and practices that focus on solutions and severely restrict the use of out-of-school suspensions. Specifically, the most effective school discipline will achieve two goals. It will create order and engage all students in school and in learning. Effective school discipline must:

Lead to Solutions - helping troubled students to resolve underlying problems so that educational continuity can be maintained.
Promote Engagement of All Students – recognizing that student engagement is key to prevention and effective intervention.
Ensure that Disciplinary Interventions Teach Students – better behavior, responsibility and compassion for others.
Utilize a Range of Disciplinary Interventions that are appropriate to the student’s age, disability, the circumstances of the incident AND that limit use of out-of-school suspensions to incidents that pose an immediate safety threat.
Promote Communication and Partnership with Parents

We, the undersigned, urge School Boards, Superintendents and other community leaders to adopt a Solutions-Not Suspensions approach to school discipline:

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