Aiming to upend policies that have disproportionately punished Black students, the Dallas Independent School District is moving to rewrite its school disciplinary code, ending suspensions for low-level infractions like disrupting class or using profanity.
Instead of kicking students out of school, the district plans to use digital tools that have become part of school life during the pandemic to create in-school “Reset Centers” where students can Zoom into classes and access mental health professionals and teletherapy.
If approved by the Dallas school board as expected, the new policies in Texas’ second largest school district would be unprecedented in the state and one of the most progressive discipline reforms in the country, education experts said.
“If it’s done correctly, it could be truly historic,” said Andrew Hairston, Director of Education Justice Project at Texas Appleseed, a social and economic justice nonprofit.
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