What About 'Reverse Suspension'? Parent and Child in a Conference Instead
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder explores the idea of reverse suspension — requiring the parent and child to attend a conference rather than sending the student home.
Key Takeaways
- Reverse suspension keeps learning going - The student stays in school while still facing a meaningful consequence
- Parental involvement changes the dynamic - Requiring parents to come in for a conference creates accountability for the family
- Creative alternatives have limits - This approach works for some situations but doesn't replace the need for exclusion in cases of violence
Transcript
What do you think about reverse suspension?
I've heard of some schools requiring parents to come to school and attend classes with their kids, or at least I've heard people talking about that as a potential idea.
That to me does not really seem like it would work.
It doesn't seem legal or safe to have parents actually attend classes with their students.
But I was thinking today about potential consequences in cases where it's not legal to suspend kids below a certain grade level, like say below third or fourth grade, which some people have said is the case in their area.
And I wonder what would happen if we said, hey, your kid is not suspended, but we are doing a reverse suspension for your child where you have to come to school with them, and we'll give you a conference room, and you get to be their teacher for the day.
You get to help them do all of their work, and nobody will bother you.
You can eat lunch with your child.
You can take your child out for a private recess, but no electronics.
You don't bring your phone.
Your child's not on a device.
You just...
do your schoolwork, you know, you help your child do their schoolwork the old fashioned way.
And that is a reverse suspension.
What do you think about that?
Especially for younger kids where, you know, often in elementary schools, there's no in-school suspension program.
There's no Saturday school.
We don't have a lot of other consequences.
And if you can't do out of school suspension, especially If there's a situation of violence, you know, if a student has been hurting other people, what do you think about that as an alternative?
What do you think your legal counsel would say?
I'm not your lawyer.
I'm not advising you to do this, but I wanted to propose the idea and see what you thought about reverse suspension where the parent has to come to school and monitor their child for the day.
If they don't, of course, the kid could be at home and that would be an unexcused absence, but not a suspension.
And obviously what we're trying to do here is give the classroom a break, give the teacher a break, give the peers a break and put a real boundary in place, especially for violence.
Right.
Like if you have a kid who is just being unsafe and you're kind of out of ideas for for what to do about that.
Obviously, there are other things we should do to support behavior, but usually consequences need to be part of the picture.
And I'm curious what you think about this one.
Let me know.