School suspensions and expulsions have long held a place in the essential toolkit for educators struggling to maintain control over their classrooms. Since all it took was a single disruptive student to undermine a safe, supportive learning environment, relocating problem behavior made sense.
The Norwalk School District, like so many others, bought into the logic, as evidenced by an increase in the number of expulsions and suspensions from 1,045 to 1,490 between 2014 and 2018.
Now, however, thanks to new research, punitive measures are out. Restorative methods are in.
