The Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) method is a set of strategies and techniques used to establish the guidelines of desired behavioral expectations for students. If a child exhibits negative behavior, instructors are encouraged to provide students with constructive feedback about expected behavior, and address them with a positive statement or correction instead of using a punitive method. 

Positive Behavior Intervention and Support

Restorative justice focuses on repairing relations between two parties, where they work together to arrive at an agreed upon solution. Because instructors are not enforcing punitive measures on either party, restorative justice shifts behavioral discipline from punishment to learning. 

Restorative Justice

Some education researchers advocate for teacher training programs, such as the My Teacher Partner Secondary program, which encourages them to reflect on their teaching models. One study showed that teachers who participated in this program were less likely to have a disproportionate amount of discipline referrals for students of color compared to teachers who did not participate in this program. 

Teacher Training Programs

Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS), Restorative Justice, and teacher training programs are all seen as viable alternatives to the zero tolerance policy.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Students of color with disabilities are disproportionately more likely to end up in the American prison system. 

The School-to-Prison Pipeline

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, “Beyond Suspensions: Examining School Discipline Policies and Connections to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students of Color with Disabilities” by Catherine E. Lhamon, July 2019, https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/2019/07-23-Beyond-Suspensions.pdf


Beyond Suspensions: Examining School Discipline Policies and Connections to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students of Color with Disabilities

Zero tolerance discipline policies focus on punitive measures against disruptive or violent student misbehavior through methods like suspension or expulsion, rather than using preventive measures to correct behavioral infractions.  

Zero Tolerance Policy

- At least 73% of individuals who drop out of school are arrested within 5 years of doing so. 
- 70% of prison inmates have not completed high school.
- 75% of minors sentenced to adult prisons have not completed the 10th grade. 
- In the juvenile justice system, 70% have been identified as having learning disabilities, and 33% have a reading level below 4th grade. 
- 68% of juveniles placed in prison systems are people of color. 

Suspensions, Disability, and the American Prison System

High-poverty schools and schools where at least half of the student population are non-white have the highest percentage of police presence on campus. Students who attend schools with at least one dedicated officer on campus are 5 times more likely to receive criminal charges for “disorderly conduct.” There is little evidence to suggest that police presence on campus reduces school violence.

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