HB 398

Abstract

Public elementary and secondary schools; student discipline; evidence-based restorative disciplinary practices. Prohibits, except in certain cases involving specific offenses enumerated in applicable law or in cases in which the division superintendent or his designee finds that aggravating circumstances, as defined by the Department of Education, exist, any public elementary or secondary school student from being suspended, expelled, or excluded from attendance at school without first considering at least one evidence-based restorative disciplinary practice such as community conferencing, community service, mentoring, a peer jury, peer mediation, positive behavioral interventions and supports, a restorative circle, or the Virginia Tiered Systems of Supports. The bill also requires the Department to add as part of the student behavior and administrative response collection required pursuant to relevant law the use of evidence-based restorative disciplinary practices as a behavioral intervention in order to evaluate the use and effectiveness of such practices. This bill is identical to SB 586.

Public elementary and secondary schools; student discipline; leveled administrative responses to student behavior. Prohibits, except in certain cases involving firearms, drugs, adjudications of delinquency, convictions of certain crimes, or certain aggravating circumstances, any public elementary or secondary school student from being suspended, expelled, or excluded from attendance at school without considering the leveled administrative responses to student behavior, including in-school suspension, as set out in the Department of Education's "Model Guidance for Positive, Preventive Code of Student Conduct Policy and Alternatives to Suspension," and any amendments thereto.

Public elementary and secondary schools; student discipline; evidence-based restorative disciplinary practices.Prohibits, except in certain cases involving firearms, drugs, adjudicationsof delinquency, or convictions of certain crimes, any public elementaryor secondary school student from being suspended, expelled, or excludedfrom attendance at school without implementing at least one evidence-based restorative disciplinary practice, defined in the bill as an evidence-basedalternative disciplinary practice used to reduce suspensions, expulsions,and disciplinary referrals with an emphasis on fostering peer and staff relationships and repairing harm to the injured party, consistentwith the practices set out in the Department of Education's "ModelGuidance for Positive, Preventative Code of Student Conduct Policyand Alternatives to Suspension" and any amendments thereto and includingcommunity conferencing, community service, mentoring, a peer jury, peer mediation, a post-conflict resolution program, a preventativeprogram, and a restorative circle.