Santa Fe School District Works with Community for Positive School Discipline – Santa Fe, NM
The nearly 14,000 students in the Santa Fe School District now have better access to organizations and resources that help reduce problem behavior and promote violence-free schools.
Through the Safe Schools/Healthy Students initiative, the district partnered with the regional juvenile justice agency; the police department; local mental-health agencies; the juvenile probation/parole office; and a children, youth, and families agency to significantly improve its response to at-risk youth. The partners met every week to learn how each of the relevant systems functioned, to visit the detention center and runaway youth shelters, and to develop strategies for shifting systems from punishment to prevention.
Together, they created a resource map of all services available to at-risk youth. They also developed a strengths-based plan to integrate their service systems and provide resources for youth wherever there were gaps.
The results were an 11 percent reduction in adolescent arrests, a decrease in suspensions and expulsions, and fewer police calls to school sites.
Excerpted from Positive School Discipline Real Stories at www.PromotePrevent.org