Western Pa. schools are seeing more students act out since the pandemic. Now they’re changing how they discipline them

They are moving away from zero tolerance practices – or automatic discipline such as suspensions and expulsions, which disrupt education and disproportionately target students of color – to instead implement restorative justice programs that will build relationships between students and staff while working to get to the root of specific behaviors. Those efforts, said James Huguley – principal investigator of the Just Discipline Project at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work, which started six years ago to curb the use of punitive discipline in schools – will help “build a more relational, responsive school culture.” Read more in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.