Alternatives to Suspension

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."

School discipline is a delicate balance between what is best for the student and what is best for the school community. Traditional suspension is unproductive from the point of view of academics as well as the well-being of the individual student. Not only that, but the school community at large suffers from a punitive approach that removes a student from their teachers and peers. There are also those students who intentionally take advantage of the suspension system in order to get away from school or to escape from a difficult situation. As a result, suspensions are not effective deterrence for many of the student they are designed to help.

Alternatives to suspension can provide a much better motivation to get students to engage, to attend school, and to succeed. While traditional suspension remains an option, available to school administrators when needed. There are several occasions when alternatives may be more effective:

Parenting Plan

“Effective parenting has nothing to do with pointing out our faults and everything to do with working out solutions.”

 Why Does it Have to Be a Custody Battle? Why Not a Parenting Plan? Learn to Mediate Parenting Plans To Help Families Deal with the Issues of Custody and Visitation.

• Mediators can help parents make decisions together.
• Parents can focus on parenting and not their own conflicts.
• Kids do better when parents work together.
• Parents may not be on the best of terms, but they can still be excellent parents.

Dispute Resolution Centers are recruiting individuals to be trained to assist our community members to work through family conflict productively. This training will focus on acquiring techniques to manage conflict in collaborative and productive ways when tempers are flying and focus on the kids. We will deal with language, violence and other 'destructive' behavior head on. Be prepared that materials, language and film clips may be considered vulgar and are selected to assist students to acclimate to high energy conflicts. This workshop is facilitated by Duke Fisher, renowned New York State Certified trainer of Mediation who has been exploring the cutting edge of Conflict Management and Mediation since 1988.

Truancy/ Attendance

"Eighty percent of success is showing up."

Attendance programs work with schools, parents, students and their families in order to find solutions that decrease truancy and increase student success. These solutions are built step by step with the help of a skilled Neutral. Rather than using broad and punitive approaches to treat the symptoms, attendance programs look carefully at each student to discover the reasons why they are not attending school. Resolving these problems happens in a cooperative and non-confrontational manner, ensuring that all parties work together to give the young person what they need.

Attendance programs are appropriate for all stages of education from kindergarten through college. Many states and school districts have made attendance programs like ours a standard, core part of their school environments. The benefits to schools, families, and students are well documented.