Public News Service

Washington’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction has revised its public school discipline policies, and advocates for children said the changes weaken student protections, and OSPI did not seek enough community feedback. One of the new rules removes requirements for schools to consider alternative forms of discipline before suspensions or expulsions. Derick Harris, executive director of the Black Education Strategy Roundtable, said that since Black students are twice as likely to face disciplinary actions compared with white students, they will be unfairly affected by the change. “This appears to me to be some rollback to a bygone era of zero-tolerance policy,” Harris contended. Eric Holzapfel, chief engagement officer for the League of Education Voters, criticized OSPI for doing only the bare minimum to engage the community about the new rules, arguing they did not give enough notice for the public hearings, and there were not enough of them.