Reforming Discipline in Broward County Public Schools: Changing the Process and Changing the Outcomes

In Broward County, the school and community agencies came together in what was called the Eliminating the School House to Jail House Pipeline Committee over a shared interest on behalf of young people in the community and they identified the problem areas. After identifying the problem areas, BCPS set about finding alternative strategies, solutions and revising policies to align with their new vision.

The code of student conduct was significantly revamped to reduce the reliance on OSS and expulsion as discipline strategies for non-violent offenses and to re-route behavioral issues into a continuum of support and root cause analysis to better engage students.

Michaelle Valbrun-Pope, Executive Director of Student Support Initiatives, on what needed to change:

"We know what works in changing student behavior has to include practices like restorative justice; it has to include wraparound supports, and finding out what are the root causes of the problem. We had to bring our mental health folks, our family counselors, our social workers around strategies that specifically address those behaviors.

I think what was key for everybody was that we had to engage the students in discussion around those offenses and then look at root causes. We built the PROMISE program around those key pieces. Part of what students receive upon entering is what’s going on with this child? If we were going to support the child and keep them from reengaging in the same behaviors, we had to deal with the whole child. We had to deal with their challenges, life circumstances, etc."

The PROMISE Program

The PROMISE (Preventing Recidivism through Opportunities, Mentoring, Interventions, Support and Education) program is a key alternative strategy to exclusionary discipline developed in Broward County. The PROMISE program is an initiative designed to address non-violent behaviors that could result in student interaction with juvenile justice as well as offenses related to harassment and bullying.

PROMISE works through a short-term onsite intervention and longer-term, regular school progress monitoring model. Offenses that qualify for PROMISE include petty theft, vandalism, trespassing, harassment, fighting, and some drug and alcohol offenses.

One of the challenges districts face in school discipline reform is how to engage building and instructional staff in policy and practice changes.

David Watkins, Director of Equity and Academic Achievement speaks to this challenge:

"We had to move away from speaking to their craft as educators and speaking to their hearts. What we really needed was to improve relationships between children and the teachers, especially those children that are marginalized.”

When changing policies, it is critical to provide support and resources to staff to implement those changes and to ensure that changes don’t engender resentments.

Superintendent Runcie offered his advice:

“You’ve got to give the educators and administrators support and you’ve got to give them a relief valve. You can’t just change policy.”

The relief valves in Broward came from increased roles for support staff – social workers, school counselors, family counselors – and from increased training for new and experienced staff on what works.

Broward County didn’t just change policy and offer additional supports – these broader goals toward greater equity were an important focus of the new strategic plan. The strategic plan in Broward spoke specifically to eliminating the school-to-prison pipeline, to closing the achievement gap and to increasing achievement for children of color across the district. Putting these values down on paper and loudly proclaiming to internal and external constituents that this is what the district is going to be about increases buy-in. As constituents see that this effort is grounded in larger goals and is aligned to district resources and strategies now and in the near future, the resistance is diminished.

Ms. Valbrun-Pope speaks to the value of the alignment of the community in assisting Broward’s efforts: 

“This is a community effort involving all of the agencies that touch children in Broward County. At the same time, there’s a level of accountability that’s coming from the superintendent and the board, from the court system, from children’s services council, from all of these places – so everyone’s holding each other accountable and holding our actions as adults in the community to the light.”

Broward County’s system-wide commitment to alternatives to OSS and expulsion are paying dividends. Engaging the community partners and sharing accountability has allowed for greater sustainability and coordination. Shared values and a change in processes are changing outcomes.

Broward County Public Schools has seen a 67% reduction in student arrests and behavior referrals are down by more than 30%.

OSS rates have dropped by 25%. Data show that about 90% of students that participate in the PROMISE Program (about 2,000 per year) have no discipline offenses after completion of the program.

Broward County was 1st out of 67 Florida districts in terms of the highest number of student arrests in 2011; today Broward County ranks 60th out of 67.

The interventions are changing behaviors and the policy changes are getting results.

The next steps in Broward include continuing to use data to drive decision-making and to continue to link and align interventions, supports, discipline, and success. Broward is continuing critical conversations with building and instructional staff about behavior issues impacting academic success and a lack of academic success impacting behavioral issues.

If the data shows that there are correlations between early grade absenteeism, 3rd grade reading proficiency, middle school discipline problems and high-school dropout rates, then we know that a holistic approach is needed to solve these complex problems. Reforming school discipline is about more than changing codes of conduct and finding alternatives to OSS. Reforming school discipline and school climate are about better serving the needs of the whole child and supporting students and families before, during, and after behavior problems surface.

All of the stakeholders in this system – district staff, principals, teachers, support staff, students, and their families – deserve the tools, resources and supports to be successful. The challenge that Broward has taken on successfully is how to find cost-effective ways to provide those supports and how to align and strategically coordinate those tools and supports around strategic goals, data, and new programs.

Superintendent Runcie advises superintendents to look outward and find strategies that are working in other districts:

“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We need to function, in public education and in this country, as a large community that’s willing to help share ideas to help all students, no matter whether those children are in our district or in another district. We should all be working to ensure we increase the number of successful children.”