Discipline at Riverwood Elementary School 

Last school year (2018/2019), Riverwood Elementary had 324 instances of disciplinary misbehavior. When
written up, these instances were categorized as Bus, Classroom and/or Office. The instances ranged from
disruption and verbal abuse to vandalism, fighting, and theft. The consequences RES applied to instances seem
to match the restorative practice. The hierarchy of consequences depended on a number of variables: age of the
student, the habit of behavior, the severity of instance, and the effects of the action on others. The
Administrators seemed to have done everything possible to keep every child in the school, but in some cases,
Out of School Suspension was necessary. The data shows the following hierarchy of consequences for
discipline:

Student Warning 

Parent Contact 

Time in Office 

Behavior Contract 

Consult with Counselor 

ISS 

Time off Bus 

OSS 

This year, the School Improvement Team decided to change the name of the ISS room to “Reflections”. The
name is motivation for the purpose of the room. Restoring behavior in schools has been shown to allow students
to learn in the process how to control their actions, and feelings without acting upon them.
Some instances that affected other’s mental or physical well-being were automatically grounds for
Out-of-School-Suspension, such as bullying or fighting/affray. When the safety of others in jeopardy, RES will
not tolerate that kind of behavior.
When looking at the data, the time and place of instances reveal some clear trends. The place and time data have
been isolated to look for trends and therefore cannot be correlated, however, each provides some opportunities
for discussion as to how to further support both students and teachers.
The majority of the discipline instances are taking place in the classroom. This makes sense since the students
are in the classroom for the majority of the day. The overwhelming number does suggest that Professional
Development is needed to support teachers in identifying possible triggers for behavior, and how best to defuse
and restore within their classroom. The school can also support teachers by creating a safe place for students
who seem to be struggling, to have a moment to regain control of their thoughts and feelings.

The time of day data is interesting because it reveals the majority of the instances take place between 11 am and
noon. There also seems to be a spike of misbehavior in the afternoons. There are many factors that can explain
this discovery.

Another reveal from the data shows that there are a number of students who are “frequent flyers”, they have
logged multiple referrals over the school year. These are the students who would benefit most from an MTSS
behavior plan. They should be closely monitored for triggers, and really worked with to teach multiple ways of
coping with adversity. Parents and the school should be partners in this plan and work together to help the child
learn to identify the moment they are ready to act out.
RES has a fabulous team of Administration, Counselors, Support Staff, Social Workers that believe each child
deserves to succeed. Overall, the number of instances compared to the number of students and the time spent in
school is relatively low.