Should Discipline Consequences Reset Each Time?
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses why students deserve relational fresh starts, but repeated misbehavior should still trigger progressive discipline consequences.
Key Takeaways
- Fresh Starts Are Relational - Students shouldn't have past mistakes held over their heads in day-to-day relationships with adults.
- Discipline Records Should Be Cumulative - In a progressive discipline system, a second or third offense should not be treated like a first offense.
- Consequences Must Escalate - If the same response keeps failing, schools need an increasing ladder of consequences or placement changes.
- Most Students Respond Early - Justin argues that consequences deter serious behavior for about 95% of students before repeated suspension becomes an issue.
- Escalation Protects Safety - Keeping stronger consequences available helps schools respond to the most severe or chronic disruption and safety situations.
Full Transcript
We give kids a fresh start after they get in trouble. I think, relationally, yes. Every day is a new day. Every kid is going to make mistakes and need a fresh start, relationally. So I don't think, as people, we should hold it over kids' heads when they've gotten in trouble in the past. But I think there is one circumstance where we do need to not give a fresh start.
And that is the cumulative discipline record. If you're following a progressive discipline system, You'll see that most of these systems that have matrices or frameworks that specify the consequences don't encourage you to start over. And I don't encourage you to start over with school-level consequences.
If a kid is in trouble for something once, the second time is different, right? The first offense is different from the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth offense. And I think there ultimately comes a point where we have to say, okay, this is a severe enough behavior, this is a repeated enough behavior, that something's got to change.
And it may be that the consequence changes, or it may be that the placement changes. There may be some cliff that the student is marching toward that interrupts the behavior, not just temporarily, but on a permanent basis. If we want to avoid the most extreme safety
and disruption situations, I think we have to leave that on the table for those most extreme circumstances. And that means that we can't just treat every situation as if it's a first offense. We can't just completely wipe this slate clean and say, hey, I understand everybody makes mistakes.
Well, you know, we're gonna make this no big deal.
I think there has to be an escalating ladder of consequences in order for the consequences to work, right? Because if we do the same thing over and over again, and we don't escalate, well, that's like that old definition of insanity, right? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping it'll work. Well...
It's not going to work, and we are going to have to face the fact that at some point, something will have to give, and that's built into progressive discipline. That's why progressive discipline ultimately works, even if the consequence does not change the student's behavior, right?
And I think we, we have this very high bar for consequences that, like, oh, it should work, or we shouldn't do consequences. Well, there are two ways that a consequence can work. The first way is that it motivates the student, right, to exercise self-control, to make good choices.
And that, I think, is the primary way that consequences work.
And they work for about 95% of kids. If you have a consequence, most kids are not going to do really terrible things because that consequence is in place. If you remove that consequence, a lot more kids are going to do terrible things for various reasons.
I have a lot of evidence on suspension statistics that says it's only about 5% of kids that will get repeatedly suspended time after time again. So the second way that consequences influence behavior is they give us some recourse. If we are in that situation where it's
like, this is continuing to happen, we need to approach it differently.
But I don't think we need to give every kid, policy-wise, a fresh start every time they get in trouble. I think that's just for the interpersonal, the relational side. Let me know what you think.