8 OctOber 24 - 30, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents fessionals; CBS News reported that, as of 2023, Texas had one school psychologist for every 2,600 students. The National Associa- tion of School Psychologists recommends a 1:500 ratio. The American School Counselors Asso- ciation recommends one school counselor for every 250 students, but in Texas, there’s only one counselor for every 390 students. And it’s difficult to imagine that a single so- cial worker for every 5,200 Texas students is able to play an effective role in curbing be- havioral challenges. Funding for the consortium was in- creased in 2023 as part of the Legislature’s $11.6-billion grant to behavioral health ini- tiatives. The funding, in part, helped strengthen the Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine program, which connects K–12 schools across the state with licensed mental health professionals who can help guide care for youth in cri- sis. The program also allows school administrators to flag warning signs or request assistance for youth pre- senting violent or harmful ideations, Tamminga said. All of it is done on the state’s dime. Continuing investments in ado- lescent mental health is a move that legislators, education advocates and psychiatric experts hope will have a positive impact on student behavior in the school environment, but solv- ing the problem could take more than just state dollars. Doing it For the Kids K ramer has not experienced students escalating to defi- ance or violence in her own classroom, but she believes her school’s culture has been negatively impacted in recent years by poor staff retention, an issue being felt across Fort Worth ISD. Last year, Fort Worth ISD experienced more administrative resignations than any year since 2017, the Fort Worth Report found. That turnover in staff is add- ing to the instability students are experienc- ing during their education, Kramer said. Last winter, hostile student behaviors at a DeSoto Middle School resulted in 30 educa- tors calling out of work in protest. The pandemic didn’t only “break” stu- dents, she added. Over 13% of Texas teach- ers left the profession in the 2022–23 school year, state data shows. The trauma of the pandemic, along with a shift in the public’s perception of education, is something she is still reckoning with. “I’m still not recovered from what hap- pened and the way that teachers were treated by the public. There was all this ‘Y’all are heroes, yay yay yay,’ and then it turned to ‘Y’all are grooming our students,’” she said. “It was just really a roller coaster of a time frame, and it’s still rippling out.” With schools understaffed, teachers are in the perilous position of balancing their passion for education with their own mental health. Data shows that this isn’t just a North Texas issue; student behavioral issues are making it difficult for teachers to keep “doing it for the kids” nationwide. In Delaware, a survey conducted by Emma White Research revealed that three in five educators now believe that they will retire early or leave public education be- cause of student behavioral challenges. One in five reported being physically hurt by a student, and two in five reported having had to evacuate their classrooms due to un- safe student behaviors. In a statement, Del- aware State Education Association President Stephanie Ingram described the state of public education as reaching “a cri- sis point.” In Colorado, staffing shortages have dou- bled in the years since the pandemic, and out-of-school suspensions given out to un- ruly students have increased by 25%. Schools in New York City are seeing in- creases in disciplinary issues similar to those recorded by North Texas districts. “[Through the pandemic] teachers and schools were preaching grace. ‘Provide grace to the students. They’ve gone through unprecedented times,’” Poole said. “But a lot of administrators have taken a hands-off ap- proach when it comes to student discipline and they just leave it all on the teachers in the classroom. And unfortunately, we’re see- ing a very sharp increase in [negative] stu- dent behaviors, including fights and assaults on campus.” Student discipline is generally left to the discretion of districts or schools to regulate. At Kramer’s school, educators are told to no- tify administrators immediately in the case of violent offenses. Everything else is left to the teachers, who are often required to use in- structional time to keep track of which stu- dent is on which strike for which infraction. A set of guidelines prescribed by admin- istrators outlines the levels of escalation when handling discipline: first offense, speak with the child; second offense, call the parents; third offense, go to administrators. In “reality,” though, Kramer says she is han- dling things entirely on her own. “I’ve been conditioned not to [go to the administration about student behavioral is- sues] because when I send it to them, noth- ing happens,” Kramer said. “I don’t see the point in putting myself through all that.” State guidelines for districts’ codes of conduct are outlined in Chapter 37 of the Texas Education Code. Adopted by the state in 1995, the code includes some broad language that allows districts to de- fine their own policies. It also gives spe- cific examples of cases where students should be removed from school, a measure reserved for the worst of the worst of- fenses, such as “engaging in conduct pun- ishable as a felony.” In the mid-’90s, those policies (known as “zero-tolerance policies”) that called for the immediate removal of students from the school environment as punishment for behavior — regardless of context or whether the student had prior behavioral infractions — were widespread across Texas districts. The state has made some tweaks that offer some student protections from discipline; for instance, a homeless student cannot be given out-of-school sus- pension as a punishment. Across many Texas districts, the zero- tolerance discipline style lost traction through the 2000s as studies found they were used disproportionately against Black male students, and often made no consider- ation for nuances such as self-defense. In 2017, Dallas ISD eliminated out-of-school suspensions for kindergarten through sec- ond-grade students — with exceptions for extreme cases, such as bringing a weapon to campus — as part of the effort to move away from the “antiquated discipline sys- tem,” the district said. State law followed Dallas ISD’s lead later the same year. As zero-tolerance policies slipped in pop- ularity, more kids were able to stay in the classroom, but Poole is concerned that some North Texas districts are removing too many student discipline tools without solving the “underlying behaviors” that lead to disciplin- ary action being necessary in the first place. “That’s where schools are caught in a Catch-22,” Poole said. “School district pol- icy has tied [teacher’s] hands, but nothing has been given to them to help provide sup- port to address the student behaviors, espe- cially before they escalate to violence. And so our schools are suffering, our classes are suffering.” He worries the result will be more teach- ers burning out and leaving the profession for good, and more parents pulling their children out of public schools in favor of a private or charter education. Inviting Nuance into School Discipline I n 2023, zero-tolerance language was re- introduced into the state’s education pol- icy through a mandate requiring that students caught with a vape device be sent to their district’s disciplinary alternative ed- ucation program, or DAEP. Advocates for education justice criticized the law, House Bill 114, as being a step backward in Texas’ approach to student discipline. A report by The Dallas Morning News found that across eight Dallas- area school districts, one in five stu- dents sent to an alternative program during the last school year was there because of vaping. “The problem is that everyone equates cracking down with kicking kids out [of school], but there are other forms of accountability,” Re- nuka Rege, senior staff attorney with the Education Justice Project at Texas Appleseed, said. “We had behavioral issues before the pan- demic, we’ve always had them. And we had zero-tolerance policies, what we call exclusionary disci- pline. … We found that they didn’t work. They didn’t reduce behavior issues back then. They only disen- gaged and pushed kids out of their education.” Outside of state mandates like H.B. 114, districts are mostly on their own to determine how student discipline should be handled. For Dallas ISD, the years leading up to the pandemic marked a shift towards exploring alternative discipline styles. Just ten years ago, 12,000 students each school year received an out-of-school suspension, state data shows. In 2021, Dallas ISD ended out-of-school suspensions for middle and high school students. As an alternative, the district introduced “reset centers” into its secondary school campuses. The centers, led by coordinators with experience in adolescent behavior, are a place for students to “cool off” when prob- lems arise, says Rena Honea, who represents Dallas ISD’s non-administrative employees with Alliance/AFT. “Kids pop off all the time, they’ll say whatever comes to their minds. The state has taken away a lot of the discipline that was allowed years ago and so districts are having to be pretty creative in how they han- dle this type of behavior,” Honea said. “[The reset centers give students] coping skills and allow them to continue to work on their schoolwork, while de-escalating so they are able to rejoin the classroom.” Dallas ISD has heralded the suc- Recommended ratio of school psychologists to students (1: 500) ← Texas ratio of school psychologists to students (1: 2600) → The National Association of School Psychologists recommends a 1:500 ratio one school psychologist for every 500 students. In Texas, the ratio is one psychologist per every 2,600 students Graphic by Sarah Schumacher Unfair Park from p6 >> p10
