'It's All about the Relationships:' the Importance of Relationships in Preventing Exclusionary Discipline Practices

Background and Purpose: Nationwide, school discipline has been called into the spotlight as information about glaring disparities continues to pervade public consciousness. A growing body of literature now suggests that exposure to punitive discipline increases students’ likelihood for negative outcomes such as grade retention, dropout, and juvenile justice involvement. Moreover, high suspension rates have been linked to student perceptions of a negative school climate. Conversely, emerging research indicates that inclusionary support strategies such as restorative approaches and relationship building have the potential to reduce student misbehavior and the need for punitive discipline interventions.

In an effort to combat and reduce racial disparities in discipline practices, school districts have engaged in a variety of strategies. Yet philosophical shifts such as focusing on student relationships and treating discipline as an opportunity for student growth are slow to take hold. Unfortunately, punitive and zero-tolerance discipline approaches remain the dominant paradigm. This study adds to the current literature by illuminating the extent to which teachers, support staff, and administrators more successful schools believe that relationships matter with regard to exclusionary discipline practices within one large urban school district.

Methods: 37 schools (from a population of 180) were purposively selected for the study sample based on the criteria of having low and equitable suspension rates (<3% for all students and Black youth in particular). Of these schools, 33 participated in the study (an 89% response rate) including 20 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, 3 high schools, and 5 schools serving multiple grade levels. Using semi-structured protocols, interviews and focus groups were conducted with key staff and principles at each school. Recordings of these conversations were transcribed verbatim and coded using Dedoose qualitative software. Analysis used both inductive and deductive techniques, with preliminary codes gleaned from a literature review and iterative code development driven by participant responses. Codes were assessed for inter-rater reliability across three researchers using Cohen’s Kappa (k > .80). 

Results: Educators attributed their school’s low suspension rates to the strong connections built between adults and students in the building. Having an awareness of students’ strengths, triggers, coping resources, and areas of growth helped adults understand the underlying motivation behind misbehavior, and respond with effective interventions. Personal knowledge about each student created the conditions for discipline to be utilized as an opportunity for growth and problem solving, rather than impersonal punishment. Full findings including relevant quotes will be shared in the full presentation.

Conclusion and Implications: Establishing supportive relationships is a key lever in creating a positive school climate, minimizing misbehavior, and reducing racial discipline gaps. As such, findings from this study support extant research and suggest that studies of relational interventions should include an evaluation of discipline outcomes.   In terms of practice, ensuring that school social workers have the training and skills to educate other school personnel, advocate for positive relationship strategies, and model effective relationship building is of critical importance and is well-aligned with social work values.