New laws seek to make detentions, suspensions rarer in Minnesota elementary schools

It will soon be more difficult for Minnesota teachers to remove young children from the classroom as punishment, under new laws that go into effect for nearly a third of public school students ahead of the new academic year.

The new statutes, which Gov. Tim Walz signed into law in May as part of a sweeping education bill, touch on disciplinary actions for students in kindergarten through third grade — ranging from recess detention up to suspension — and will require school officials across the state to revisit their policies before students and staff return to classrooms in the fall.

The laws regulate how and when educators may use recess detention as a punishment for young students. Such a punishment may only be dispatched if a pupil is "likely to cause serious physical harm to other students or staff" or if a parent grants school leaders permission to deny the child playtime. Elementary educators may not eject students from a classroom as punishment for truancy or tardiness.

In addition, schools will have to develop a process for parents to officially complain about disciplinary actions.

"The system we have in place will need to change," Anoka-Hennepin School District spokesman Jim Skelly said. "There's no doubt about that."

Inequity spurred new laws

Rep. Ruth Richardson, DFL-Mendota Heights, said the disparities in school discipline data the Minnesota Department of Human Rights reported last year show the new provisions are needed. The agency found that while students of color comprised just under half of all enrollment in the state's public schools, they made up 4 in 5 disciplinary cases.

The statistics were even more stark for students with disabilities, who made up 59% of discipline cases but just 14% of enrollment.

"These students were being punished more often, and often more severely than their peers," said Richardson, who sponsored the legislation prohibiting educators from removing young students from the classroom. "And it was usually for very subjective reasons like showing disrespect or something like that."

Critics of the new laws say they restrict the use of tools educators employ for the most severe cases. Rep. Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, said she would have preferred legislation that provided more state guidance for districts on when and how recess detentions and suspensions would be appropriate and leave educators wider latitude to make the final decision.

"I think we need to have some trust in our teachers and administrators because most of them are doing it correctly," she said. "I think guidance and limitations are appropriate here."

Bennett said some of the legislation's reporting provisions are a step in the right direction. The new laws require districts to log every recess detention and report them to the state at the end of the school year, including demographic data such as students' age, race and gender. Districts are currently required to report how many times they discipline a student along with that demographic data, but not which kinds of punishments educators dole out.

Districts reassess policies

As the new school year approaches, district decisionmakers are figuring out what the laws mean for their teachers and students.

At St. Paul Public Schools, which enrolls about 9,600 students in kindergarten through third grade, officials are reviewing disciplinary policies to see which ones need adjustment ahead of the new academic year, spokeswoman Erica Wacker said. The same is true at Bemidji Area Schools, where officials are unraveling the potential consequences for about 1,300 students at six schools.

"We're still working on fully understanding how the statute is going to affect us," Superintendent Jeremy Olson said.

Mary Wolverton, the Anoka-Hennepin school district's associate superintendent for elementary education, has spent the last few weeks revisiting disciplinary policies that will soon affect more than 10,500 young students across 25 campuses.

Most of those elementary schools have what educators call "turn-around" or "safe space" rooms where teachers may refer disruptive students so they can cool off. District officials are reviewing current policy over how those rooms are used to make sure they remain within the law.

As district officials begin to better understand the new laws, they've begun meeting with principals to discuss how to incorporate them into staff training.

"We're all sitting down collaborating on what is working well and what are our areas of growth," Wolverton said. "We're looking at which systems need to be in alignment so that we can keep what's in compliance and reassess what isn't."