One page for principals: when a parent asks for the paddle (PDF) · The whole kit as a PDF
Everything a district needs to end corporal punishment well: the policy, the motion, the words for staff, families and students, the history, the training, and the ninety days between the vote and the change.
Everything a district needs to end corporal punishment well: the policy, the motion, the words for staff, families and students, the training, and the ninety days between the vote and the change.
Offered as an in-kind grant funded and administered by EarthPilot.org — no cost to the district, no cash changes hands. Delivered with coaching for the superintendent and principals through the first year, including the board presentation and the parent letter.
The position is the best one, not the easiest one: prohibited entirely. Not "with parental consent," not "as a last resort." The evidence base (the evidence base), the American Academy of Pediatrics (2023), the Secretary of Education (2023), 137 of 199 countries, and every district in Kentucky and North Carolina are on that side. A district that adopts consent-only is choosing to keep hitting the children whose parents say yes, and the data say those are disproportionately the children with the least protection.
| File | Used by | When | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Model policy | Board, superintendent, solicitor | First reading |
| 2 | Board motion and resolution | Board president, any member | The vote |
| 3 | Announcement to staff | Superintendent, principals | The week after the vote, before anything is public |
| 4 | Letter to families | Superintendent | Same week |
| 5 | Telling the students | Principals, teachers | Same week, by grade band |
| 6 | The history, in one page | Everyone who has to answer "why now?" | Any time |
| 7 | Training, transition, and what replaces the paddle | Leadership team, all staff | Days 1 to 90 |
The training itself is the ten open modules in the training modules (about fourteen staff hours), and the alternatives are Modules 2 through 5: classroom routines, the office response ladder, repair conversations, and plans for the few students who keep coming back.
The acknowledgment language follows the districts and countries that ended the practice and said so plainly rather than quietly (intl-comparators-how-they-ended, campaign-north-carolina-all-districts-2018, campaign-kentucky-zero-2023-24). The alternatives are the ones with randomized evidence (alt-pbis-bradshaw-rcts, alt-restorative-rand-2018, alt-good-behavior-game-kellam), stated with their limits.
A complete board policy, written so a solicitor can adopt it with the district's numbering and nothing else. Placeholders are in [BRACKETS]. The policy does one thing — ends the practice — and then says what happens instead, because a prohibition with nothing behind it produces a suspension spike and a board that reverses itself (Module 01).
State association numbering, so it lands in the right slot of the manual: Arkansas ASBA 4.39 · Missouri MSBA JGA / JGA-1 · Oklahoma FO · Mississippi and Alabama JDB · Georgia JDA · Texas FO(LOCAL) · Tennessee TSBA 6.314. Replace the existing policy under that code; do not add a second one beside it.
POLICY [NUMBER]: CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
[DISTRICT NAME] BOARD OF EDUCATION
Adopted: [DATE] Effective: [DATE, ninety days after adoption]
Rescinds: Policy [NUMBER] of [DATE]
1. PURPOSE
The Board's purpose is a safe, orderly school in which every student is present, learning, and
treated with dignity. Discipline exists to teach and to keep people safe. The Board finds that the
deliberate infliction of physical pain on a student does neither, and ends its use.
2. DEFINITIONS
Corporal punishment means the deliberate infliction of physical pain on a student as a means of
discipline, correction or control, including hitting, paddling, spanking, slapping, shaking,
pinching, striking with any object, forcing a student to hold a painful position, or denying a
student food, water, or use of a restroom as a consequence.
Corporal punishment does not mean the reasonable physical force that is necessary, and no more
than is necessary, to stop a student from injuring themselves or another person, to separate
students who are fighting, to take a weapon or dangerous object from a student, or to protect
property from serious damage, when no less intrusive means is available and the force ends when
the danger ends. Such force is governed by the district's policy on physical restraint and by
state law, and every use is documented and reported under Section 7.
3. PROHIBITION
No employee, contractor, volunteer, or other agent of the district shall administer corporal
punishment to any student, in any school, program, vehicle or activity of the district, for any
reason, at any time. No parent or guardian may authorize it. No student may consent to it or
choose it in place of another consequence.
4. WHAT REPLACES IT
The Superintendent shall implement, in every school, a published system of positive behavior
supports and graduated responses to misbehavior that:
(a) states three to five expectations for student conduct, taught and re-taught in every classroom;
(b) sets out a graduated ladder of office responses, published in the student handbook and posted
in every classroom, in which every response returns the student to class and requires a repair
of the harm done, and in which exclusion from school is the last rung, reserved for threats to
safety;
(c) provides a plan, with a daily adult contact, for any student who receives three office
referrals in a month;
(d) is applied the same way by every administrator in the district.
5. TRAINING
Before the effective date, every employee who supervises students shall complete the district's
training in classroom routines, the office response ladder, and repair conversations. New
employees shall complete it within sixty days of hire. The Superintendent shall certify completion
to the Board.
6. FAMILIES
The Superintendent shall notify every family in writing of this policy before its effective date,
in the family's language, including the office response ladder and how to raise a concern. No
opt-out, consent form, or waiver concerning corporal punishment shall be distributed or accepted.
7. RECORDS AND REPORTING
Every office referral shall be logged with the date, the behavior, the response given, and the
student's grade, race, sex, disability status and English-learner status. The Superintendent shall
report to the Board, and publish, each quarter: the number of referrals and of each response by
school; the number and days of any exclusion from school; the regular-attendance rate; and the
same figures by student group. Any use of physical force under Section 2 shall be documented the
same day and reported to the Superintendent and the student's parent or guardian within
twenty-four hours.
8. VIOLATIONS
An employee who administers corporal punishment in violation of this policy is subject to
discipline up to and including dismissal, and the incident shall be reported as required by law,
including to the Department of Children and Families or its equivalent where the law requires.
An employee who reports a violation in good faith shall not be retaliated against.
9. REVIEW
The Board shall review the reports under Section 7 annually, in public session, and shall review
this policy after one year and every three years thereafter.
Legal references: [state statute permitting or governing corporal punishment, cited so the record
shows the Board acted within it]; [state restraint and seclusion law]; 20 U.S.C. 1400 et seq.;
[state child abuse reporting law].Two documents. The motion is what a member says at the meeting; it is short because it is spoken. The resolution is what the record keeps; every "whereas" carries the id of the verified claim behind it (the facts registry), so a member challenged on any line can produce the source.
I move that the Board adopt Policy [NUMBER], Corporal Punishment, as presented on first reading, which rescinds Policy [NUMBER] of [DATE]; that the policy take effect on [DATE], ninety days from today; and that the Superintendent be directed to complete the staff training and the family notification before that date and to report to the Board at each regular meeting until then.
If the district requires two readings, say "as presented on first reading" and bring the resolution at the second. If a member asks for consent-only instead, the answer is in 01-model-policy.md, Section 3, notes.
RESOLUTION No. [NUMBER]
OF THE [DISTRICT NAME] BOARD OF EDUCATION
ENDING CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
WHEREAS, this district reported to the United States Department of Education that [N] of its
students received corporal punishment in the 2023-24 school year (crdc-national-total-2023-24-computed;
the district's own figure is in the record at earthpilot.org/kids/state/[XX]/); and
WHEREAS, 19,851 public school students in the United States received corporal punishment in
2023-24 by the Department's own count, which the Department has called likely underreported
(crdc-national-total-2023-24-computed; crdc-undercount-caveat); and
WHEREAS, in a propensity-matched study of more than 800 young adults from the states where school
corporal punishment is legal, those who had received it had lower high-school grade point averages
and more depressive symptoms (study-gershoff-sattler-holden-2019), and a 2022 meta-analysis of the
school-specific research found it associated with worse developmental outcomes
(study-visser-2022-school-meta-analysis); and
WHEREAS, Black students were 26 percent of students receiving corporal punishment in 2021-22 and 15
percent of enrollment, and students with disabilities have been struck at rates above their share of
enrollment in every year measured (crdc-black-students-share-2021-22; crdc-disability-share); and
WHEREAS, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended in August 2023 that corporal punishment in
all school settings be abolished and replaced by alternative forms of behavior management
(org-aap-2023-school-statement), and the Secretary of Education wrote to every governor and chief
state school officer in March 2023 asking the states to end it (law-cardona-letter-2023); and
WHEREAS, corporal punishment is fully prohibited in schools in 137 of the 199 countries and
territories tracked (intl-schools-prohibited-137-of-199), every one of North Carolina's 115
districts ended it by policy by 2018 (campaign-north-carolina-all-districts-2018), and every one of
Kentucky's 171 districts ended it by 2023, after which the state recorded zero instances
(campaign-kentucky-zero-2023-24); and
WHEREAS, school-wide positive behavior supports reduced office referrals and suspensions in a
five-year randomized trial across 37 schools (alt-pbis-bradshaw-rcts), and the training to
implement them is available to this district at no cost; and
WHEREAS, the Board finds that the practice does not serve the district's stated goals for
attendance, achievement, or a climate in which every student is treated with dignity;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of Education of [DISTRICT NAME]:
1. Adopts Policy [NUMBER], Corporal Punishment, prohibiting the practice in every school,
program, vehicle and activity of the district, and rescinds Policy [NUMBER] of [DATE];
2. Sets the effective date at [DATE], ninety days from adoption, and directs the Superintendent to
complete the training of every employee who supervises students, and the notification of every
family, before that date;
3. Directs the Superintendent to implement the graduated system of responses described in the
policy in every school by the effective date and to publish it in the student handbook;
4. Directs the Superintendent to report office referrals, responses, exclusions and the
regular-attendance rate, by school and by student group, to the Board in public session each
quarter, beginning with the quarter before the effective date so that a baseline is on the record;
5. Acknowledges that the district's past use of the practice was a mistake, and directs that this
acknowledgment be included in the district's communication to staff, families and students;
6. Directs the Superintendent to review this policy with the Board after one year.
ADOPTED this [DAY] day of [MONTH], [YEAR], by a vote of [AYES] to [NAYS].
_______________________________ _______________________________
Board President Board SecretaryClause 5 is the one members will want to strike. Keep it. The districts that reversed themselves are the ones that ended the practice as a procedural change and left the belief in place; the acknowledgment is what makes the change hold in the building. The Commons in 1986 and the Kentucky board in 2023 both said it plainly (intl-comparators-how-they-ended, campaign-kentucky-zero-2023-24).
Staff hear it first, in person, before families and before students. A teacher who learns from a parent that the paddle is gone has been told she does not matter, and she will say so in the teachers' lounge for a year. The order is: leadership team the day of the vote, all staff within the week, families the same week, students the week after.
Two documents: the superintendent's message to every employee, and the script for the all-staff meeting each principal runs.
To every employee of [DISTRICT NAME]
On [DATE] the Board voted to end corporal punishment in our schools. The policy takes effect on [DATE]. Between now and then, this is what changes, and why.
First, the honest part. For as long as any of us have worked here, this district has hit children as a form of discipline. Last year we reported [N] students to the federal government under that heading. Most of us did it, or sent a student to have it done, or knew it was happening and said nothing, because it was the policy and it was the custom and it was what was done to us. It was a mistake. Not a mistake of the people who carried it out — a mistake of the institution that asked them to. The Board has said so in its resolution, and I am saying so to you before I say it to anyone else.
The principle is simple. No one, ever, deserves to be hit — not for any reason, not by anyone whose job is to care for them. We would not accept it for ourselves in this workplace. We are done accepting it for children.
We are late, not early. The Supreme Court left this to the states in 1977. The United Kingdom ended it in state schools in 1986, New Zealand in 1990, Canada in 2004. It is prohibited in schools in 137 of the 199 countries that are tracked. Every district in North Carolina had ended it by 2018 and every district in Kentucky by 2023; Kentucky then recorded zero instances. The American Academy of Pediatrics asked every state to end it in 2023 and the Secretary of Education wrote to every governor the same year. We are among the last, and we are choosing not to be the very last.
What replaces it is not nothing. The threat of the paddle was doing work in our classrooms, and we are not pretending otherwise. Over the next ninety days every one of us will be trained in what does that work instead: the classroom routines that prevent most referrals, the office response ladder that every administrator will use the same way, and the five-minute repair conversation that makes a consequence mean something. These are not new ideas from outside; they are what the trials show works, and they are what the districts that ended the practice before us use. The training is [DATES]. It is on paid time.
What you will be asked to do. Teach the expectations. Use the ladder. Log the referral. Have the repair conversation. Ask for help with the student who keeps coming back, because there is a plan for that student and it is not the paddle. What you will not be asked to do is manage a classroom without support: the leadership team will read the referral log every week and fix the hallway, the schedule or the transition before it looks at the teacher.
We can all change. Many of you were paddled as students and turned out fine, and you will be asked about that. The answer is that we turned out fine because of the adults who cared about us, not because of the board, and that we can be those adults without it. I include myself in every sentence of this letter.
Questions come to me directly at [EMAIL] or to your principal. The full policy is at [LINK].
[NAME], Superintendent
Forty minutes. Principal speaks; leadership team present. No slides for the first ten minutes.
Minutes 0-10. Say it. Read the second and third paragraphs of the superintendent's message aloud, or say them in your own words. Then stop and let the room be quiet. Do not fill the silence with the training schedule. Someone will speak; usually it is a veteran, and usually what they say is some version of "about time" or "I never liked doing it." Let them.
Minutes 10-20. The history, in one page. Hand out 06-history.md. Walk through the six dates. The point is not to shame the district; it is to show that the change is ordinary and that everyone who made it before us is still running schools.
Minutes 20-35. What happens instead. Put the office response ladder on the wall (Module 03). Walk one referral up it: a student who cussed a teacher. Rung 1 on Monday, rung 2 on the second time, what the repair task is, who calls the parent. Then the question everyone is thinking: "And if that doesn't work?" Answer with rung 4 and Module 5 — the plan, the daily check-in, the weekly review — and be honest that the trials say referrals go up in month one as staff refer what they used to handle with a threat, and come down in month two if the ladder is used as written.
Minutes 35-40. The three things. Training dates (paid). What to say to a student who asks (see 05-announcement-students.md, "when a student asks you"). Where to bring a concern: to you, in person, and it will be answered.
What not to do in this meeting: name any student or family; name any employee who administered it; say "the state is making us" (it is not, and staff know it); apologize for the change.
"I was paddled and I'm fine." "So was I. We were fine because of the adults who cared about us. We can be those adults without the board. And the research on the kids who weren't fine is now large enough that we don't get to bet on it."
"The kids will run wild." "They might, for about a month, if we take the paddle away and put nothing in its place. That is why the training comes first and the policy takes effect in ninety days, and why the office ladder is on the wall in every room. The districts that did this before us saw referrals rise in month one and fall in month two."
"Some parents want it." "Some do, and they will be told the same thing we are telling you: that it was a mistake, and that no one hits their child here, including with their permission. The parent letter has the words. If a parent wants to talk about it, send them to me."
Sent to every family, in the family's language, in the same week staff are told and before students are. Printed and mailed, not only posted; the families most affected are the least likely to be on the app. The superintendent signs it, not a principal, because the district is the one acknowledging.
Placeholders in [BRACKETS]. Keep it to one page. The facts are from the facts registry.
[DISTRICT NAME] School District [DATE]
Dear families,
On [DATE] our Board of Education voted to end corporal punishment — paddling — in all of our schools. The change takes effect on [DATE]. I am writing to tell you what is changing, why, and what will happen instead.
What we are acknowledging. For many years this district has used paddling as a form of discipline. Last year we reported to the federal government that [N] of our students received it. Some of you received it yourselves as students here. The Board and I have concluded that it was a mistake, and we are saying so plainly: no child in this district should have been hit, and no child will be again. We are sorry.
Why now. The evidence has settled. Students who were paddled in school do worse, on average, in school and after it. The American Academy of Pediatrics asked every state to end the practice in 2023. Every school district in Kentucky and North Carolina has already ended it. It is prohibited in schools in 137 of the 199 countries that are counted. We are not early. We are choosing not to be last.
What happens instead. Discipline is not going away; the paddle is. Every school will use the same published set of responses when a student breaks a rule, from a five-minute reset and a note home, to a call you will get from your child in the office with the principal beside them, to a meeting with you the same day for anything serious. Every response ends with the student back in class and making right whatever they did. The full list is in the student handbook and on the wall of every classroom. Suspension is the last step, for safety only, not the second step.
Every teacher and administrator is being trained in these responses before the change takes effect. That training is why there are ninety days between the vote and the day the policy begins.
You no longer need to opt out. In the past, some families filed a written objection to keep their child from being paddled. That form is no longer needed and will not be offered. No one hits your child here, with or without permission. If you had wanted to keep paddling as an option, I understand that it comes from wanting your child to behave and to be safe, and I would like to talk with you about how we will do that; my number is below.
What you can do. Read the handbook page with your child. Tell us when something is not working. We will publish, every quarter, how many students were sent to the office, what happened, and how many were suspended, so that you can see whether this is working as well as we can.
Thank you for trusting us with your children. We intend to be worthy of it.
[NAME], Superintendent [PHONE] · [EMAIL]
Students are told last, after staff and families, and they are told in their classroom by the adult they see every day, not at an assembly by a stranger. Short, honest, and then on with the day. Nothing about it is a lesson plan; the whole thing is under five minutes.
The three things every version says: it was a mistake; nobody deserves to be hit; here is what happens now. Do not say "we used to" without saying "we were wrong." Children have very good detectors for an adult who is describing a change without owning it.
"I have something to tell you. In our school, when someone broke a rule, sometimes a grown-up would spank them with a paddle. We are not going to do that anymore, starting [DAY]. We decided it was wrong. Nobody should be hit — not you, not anybody, not for any reason.
"If you break a rule, here is what happens instead: I will remind you of the rule. If it keeps happening, you'll go talk with [PRINCIPAL'S NAME] for a few minutes and then come right back. And if you hurt somebody's feelings or broke something, you'll help fix it. That's it. Does anyone have a question?"
Answer questions for two minutes. The common one: "What if I'm really bad?" Answer: "Then you and I and your grown-ups will make a plan to help you. Nobody gets hit."
"Starting [DAY], nobody in this school gets paddled anymore. Not as a punishment, not for anything. The school board voted on it, and they said something I want you to hear: it was a mistake that we ever did it. Nobody deserves to be hit. Not you, not your little brother, not anyone. Grown-ups can be wrong, and grown-ups can change.
"Rules are still rules. Here's what happens when one is broken." (Walk the first three rungs of the ladder on the wall: the reminder, the office reset and note home, the call home you make yourself with the principal there and the thing you do to make it right.) "And if the same problem keeps happening, we make a plan with you and your family. That's the whole thing."
"You've probably already heard, so here it is straight. As of [DAY], corporal punishment is over in this district — no paddling, no licks, no choosing licks instead of detention. The board voted for it and they put a line in the resolution that says the district was wrong to do it. I agree with that line. Some of you have been paddled here. I'm not going to ask who. I am going to say that you didn't deserve it, and that nobody does, and that the adults here are supposed to be the ones who show you that.
"What changes for you: the office ladder on the wall. Same steps for everyone, every administrator, every time. Every step ends with you back in class and with you making right whatever it was — an apology that's actually to the person, fixing what got broken. Suspension is the last step, for safety only. If you keep landing in the office, you'll get a plan and one adult who checks in with you every morning. That's not a punishment. That's the part that works.
"One more thing. If anyone — anyone — hits you at school after [DAY], you tell me or any adult here, and it will be dealt with. That's the policy and it's the law."
"As of [DAY], corporal punishment is finished here. The board's resolution says the district's past use of it was a mistake, and I'll add that I think so too. Some of you were paddled in this building or in the elementary school. You didn't deserve it. Nobody does. There's a lot of research on what it does to kids, and there's a lot of history — the Supreme Court punted on this in 1977, most of the world ended it decades ago, every district in Kentucky ended it two years ago and the state went to zero. We're late. We're done being late.
"Practically: the handbook page on the office ladder is what governs now. Same steps for everyone. Every step ends with a repair, not a removal. Suspension is for safety threats, not for mouthing off. And the district is going to publish the numbers every quarter — referrals, suspensions, by school — so you can hold us to it.
"If you want to talk about any of this, my door is open. If you want to be part of making the ladder work in this building, student government is where that happens, and I'd like it to."
Any adult may be asked, in the hallway, "Is it true they can't paddle us anymore?" The answer is one sentence, and every adult gives the same one:
"It's true. It was wrong, and it's over. Nobody here gets hit."
If the student was paddled and wants to talk about it, listen, and then walk them to the counselor or the principal. Do not say "you probably deserved it," "it wasn't that bad," or "I was paddled and I'm fine." Say: "I'm sorry that happened to you here."
Replace the corporal punishment section of the student handbook with this, verbatim:
Discipline. Corporal punishment is prohibited in every school and program of this district. No employee, volunteer or visitor may hit, paddle, spank or otherwise physically punish a student, and no parent or student may give permission for it. When a rule is broken, the school follows the office response ladder printed on the next page: every step returns the student to class and asks them to repair the harm done, and exclusion from school is the last step, for threats to safety. A student who is hit by an adult at school should tell any staff member; the report will be acted on and the student will not be retaliated against.
For the administrator or teacher who has to answer "why now?" Every line carries the id of the verified claim in the facts registry; the sources are there.
1977. The United States Supreme Court, 5 to 4, holds in Ingraham v. Wright that the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment does not apply to paddling in public schools, and that a student need not be given a hearing first, because state tort and criminal law are remedy enough. The Court did not say the practice was good; it said the Constitution did not reach it and left the question to the states. (law-ingraham-v-wright-1977)
1986. The United Kingdom ends corporal punishment in state schools by act of Parliament. New Zealand follows by statute in 1990, Canada by a Supreme Court ruling in 2004, South Korea by national decree in 2011, Australia state by state. (intl-comparators-how-they-ended)
Today, abroad. Corporal punishment is fully prohibited in schools in 137 of the 199 states and territories tracked by the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children. (intl-schools-prohibited-137-of-199)
Today, here. It remains legal by statute in 17 states. In two of them, Kentucky and North Carolina, every district has prohibited it by policy, leaving 15 where it is both legal and in use. (law-states-permitting-count)
2018. Graham County becomes the last of North Carolina's 115 districts to vote to end it. The state law still permits it; no district uses it. (campaign-north-carolina-all-districts-2018)
2023. In March, the Secretary of Education writes to every governor and chief state school officer asking the states to end the practice, citing federal data that Black students were 2.3 times as likely as white students to receive it. (law-cardona-letter-2023) In August, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends it be abolished in all school settings in all states and replaced with alternative forms of behavior management. (org-aap-2023-school-statement) In November, the last of Kentucky's 171 districts adopts a prohibiting policy; the state records zero instances in 2023-24. (campaign-kentucky-zero-2023-24)
2023-24. 19,851 public school students in the United States receive corporal punishment, by the Department of Education's own count, which the Department calls likely underreported. Black students are about a quarter of those struck and about 15 percent of enrollment; students with disabilities are struck above their share of enrollment in every year measured. (crdc-national-total-2023-24-computed, crdc-undercount-caveat, crdc-black-students-share-2021-22, crdc-disability-share)
What the research found, in one sentence each. Young adults who were paddled in school had lower high-school grades and more depressive symptoms than matched peers who were not (study-gershoff-sattler-holden-2019). A meta-analysis of the school-specific studies found the practice associated with worse developmental outcomes (study-visser-2022-school-meta-analysis). School-wide positive behavior supports reduced suspensions and office referrals in a five-year randomized trial across 37 schools (alt-pbis-bradshaw-rcts). Restorative practices cut days lost to suspension by 36 percent against 18 percent in control schools in a 44-school randomized trial, and narrowed racial disparities, though middle-grade academic outcomes worsened in that trial — which is why the kit pairs repair with classroom routines rather than relying on it alone (alt-restorative-rand-2018).
What the teachers' unions said. The American Federation of Teachers' only resolution on the subject, from 1976, intervened in Ingraham to protect "a teacher's right to maintain discipline in the classroom." It has never been replaced. (org-aft-1976-no-opposition) A district ending the practice today is ahead of its national union, not behind it.
The sentence to remember. We are not early. We are choosing not to be last.
The policy ends the practice. This document is the ninety days that make the ending hold, and the one page a teacher keeps on the desk afterward.
Ten open modules in the training modules, about fourteen staff hours per teacher, run by the principal or a teacher-leader with the facilitator guide (Module 9). No outside trainer is needed; coaching from the program is available for the facilitator.
| Module | Title | Who | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Why change, in the words of the schools that did | All staff | 1 h |
| 1 | The 90-day transition plan | Leadership team | 2 h to plan |
| 2 | Classroom routines that prevent most referrals | Every teacher and aide | 2 half-days |
| 3 | The office: what happens instead of the paddle | Administrators | 3 h |
| 4 | Repair conversations that work in five minutes | All staff | half-day |
| 5 | The 5 percent: students with repeated referrals | Leadership team, counselor | 3 h + 20 min/week |
| 6 | Disabilities and trauma | All staff | half-day |
| 7 | Parents: the letter, the meeting, the opt-out, the ally | Administrators, office staff | 2 h |
| 8 | Data: the referral log and the monthly review | Leadership team | 2 h |
| 9 | Facilitator guide and slide notes | Whoever runs it | — |
The evidence behind each module is in the evidence base, tagged VERIFIED or REPORTED by whether the primary source was opened.
Days 1-30: prepare. Adopt the policy with the effective date at day 90. Start the referral log now, before anything changes, so there is a baseline. Train every teacher in Module 2. Write the office ladder and post it in every room. Tell staff, then families, then students (kit documents 3, 4, 5).
Days 31-60: run both systems. The ladder is the default. Weekly twenty-minute leadership meeting: read the log, name the top three behaviors, locations and times of day, and fix the environment first — the hallway, the transition, the schedule — before looking at any teacher. Train Module 4.
Days 61-90: switch. Identify the students with three or more referrals (usually 3 to 5 percent of enrollment) and start a Module 5 plan for each. Train Module 6. On day 90 the policy takes effect; announce the baseline numbers and commit to publishing the log monthly.
What to expect. Referrals go up in month one after the switch, because staff refer what they used to handle with a threat. That is expected and it is data. They come down in month two if the ladder is used as written. A suspension spike means the ladder is being skipped; go back to Module 3, not to the paddle.
In the classroom (Module 2). Three to five posted expectations, stated as what to do. Arrivals and transitions scripted. Five specific positives to every correction. The Good Behavior Game two or three times a week in K-5. A calm, private, two-step correction: restate the expectation to the student and move on; then a choice with a consequence you control.
In the office (Module 3): the ladder. Same for every administrator, every time.
| Rung | For | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | First minor | Re-teach, five-minute reset, back to class, note home |
| 2 | Repeated minor | Reflection sheet, a repair task, the student calls the parent with the administrator present |
| 3 | Third minor in a month, or first major | Same-day parent meeting, repair conversation with the person affected, loss of a named privilege |
| 4 | Repeated major | Behavior plan, in-school placement with work, daily check-in, weekly parent contact |
| 5 | Safety: weapons, serious assault, drugs | Out-of-school suspension per code, re-entry meeting the first day back, a plan |
Nobody skips rungs except for rung 5. Every rung ends with a return to class and a repair. Every rung is logged.
The repair (Module 4): five questions. What happened? What were you thinking at the time? Who has been affected, and how? What do you need to do to make it right? What will you do differently next time? The answer to the fourth question is the repair task, and it goes on the form.
The student who keeps coming back (Module 5). Three referrals in a month puts a student on the list. Two weeks of Check-In/Check-Out: two minutes with one chosen adult each morning and afternoon, a point card between classes, a graph. If the graph is flat, a thirty-minute plan meeting with the student and the family, and one thing changed at a time, reviewed weekly.
The student with a disability (Module 6). Behavior that impedes learning is an IEP-team question, and positive behavioral supports must be considered; the paddle was never a legal answer for these students in most of the permitting states and is now not an answer for anyone.
Referrals and each response by school; exclusions and days lost; the regular-attendance rate; all of it by student group, every quarter, in public session (policy Section 7). The fields match the federal Civil Rights Data Collection, so the district's own report and its federal filing agree. A board that sees the numbers does not drift back.
The paddle asked nothing of a student afterward. The ladder asks something specific of a specific student to a specific person, and checks that it was done. That is the whole difference, and it is the one that staff who were sceptical in month one describe, in month three, as the part that works.