Public Comment: 6/17/25

At the Policy Committee Meeting on June 11, Policy JK: Student Discipline was reviewed. According to notes taken by stakeholders in attendance, both Mr. Evans and Mr. Burkett voiced support for what they described as “more aggressive” disciplinary actions from the school
system.
Mr. Burkett expressed his belief in a “three strikes and you're out” approach, while Mr. Evans stated that if a student demonstrates they cannot be in the general population, we need to utilize online tools to provide those students with education. Coincidentally, this perspective seems to align with the push to open ABLE.
As the board calls for increasingly strict measures, two important questions remain: When will the support side of the equation be addressed? How will the support side of the equation be addressed?
To be clear, Rising To Learn agrees that students who consistently disrupt the classroom should not remain in that setting. Educators and students deserve classrooms that are safe and focused on learning. However, simply removing a dysregulated student from the classroom does not resolve the underlying issues, and this is where our concern lies. For example, if a student is acting out due to trauma at home, sending them back into that environment to complete online learning only compounds the problem. We are effectively placing them back in harm’s way and expecting them to thrive academically. Students who misbehave because they’re struggling with the content are unlikely to get
meaningful academic support at home. Without robust interventions in place, we’re not solving the issue, we’re delaying it. These students will return, and their needs will still be unmet.
Relocating a disruptive child to another room within the school, while sometimes necessary, is only a temporary fix if there are no meaningful supports provided. This approach comes with real resource demands: dedicated space, trained staff, and ongoing management.
We do recognize WCPS has invested in special programming and supports for students who need more. As need grows, so too must our investment. Services must expand in both scale and accessibility if we hope to make a real difference - more trained professionals, more counseling access, and more creative, individualized interventions that meet kids where they are.
Behavioral challenges vary in severity and root cause. PLEASE recognize the complexity of behavior. It is critical that the community and particularly parents understand how the elected board plans to respond to the wide spectrum of student needs. A more aggressive discipline
policy must be matched with equally robust and compassionate support systems, or we risk creating more harm than good. Many students who display highly aggressive behavior such as throwing chairs are grappling with deeper issues. These must be acknowledged and treated, not dismissed or outsourced to an at-home or distance learning model.
Dr. Sovine, Rising to Learn will be respectfully requesting the tiered breakdown of the 16,000 referrals mentioned during the June 11 Policy Committee meeting. It is vital to understand how many of these referrals fall into Tier 3, students who are persistently violent and disruptive, and how many are more manageable Tier 1 and Tier 2 cases.
Thank you for your time, and for your commitment to making decisions that consider not only discipline, but also dignity, growth, and positive, long-term outcomes for all students.