Discipline Policy

We will be using the school-wide discipline plan,  BIST (Behavior 
Intervention Support Team).  This plan focuses on accountability of all 
actions and helping the student find ways to change his/her undesired 
behavior.  There are two main objectives with this plan:  

1.  It is never okay to say or be hurtful to anyone.  
2.  It is never okay to be disruptive and stop the learning process. 

With these two objectives in mind, students are held accountable for their 
actions.  The first time an undesired behavior occurs, the student is given a 
redirection.  If the problem continues a sequence of steps follow.  They are:

1.	Redirection
2.	Buddy Room- if the action continues the student is sent to another 
classroom where they are given a "Think Sheet" to complete.  This sheet helps 
the student focus on the behavior, why it is happening, and what they can do 
to stop it.  The student stays in this room until the classroom teacher can 
visit with the student and together decide if the student is ready to come 
back to the classroom.  
3.	Recovery Room- if the student's behavior continues in the buddy room, 
they are sent to the recovery room.  This gives the student a chance to be by 
him or herself and think about the action.  
4.	Principal's Office- if the student's behavior continues in the 
recovery room, they are sent to the principal's office where the principal 
speaks to them about their behavior.  If the behavior continues here, parents 
will be called to help. 

If a student comes to school without all homework finished, it is an 
immediate loss of privileges so that the work can get finished and the 
student not fall farther behind.  A note will be sent home that same evening 
letting the parent know what assignment was not turned in.  This note will 
need to be signed and brought back the following school day.  If the note is 
not returned, the student will be sent to the office to call the parent for 
verification.    If circumstances occur which keeps your child from finishing 
the homework, please write me a short note explaining what happened and send 
it with your child.  They will still lose privileges for the day in order to 
get caught up, but credit will be given to the assignment.  No credit is 
given for unexcused late work.    

Class work that is assigned throughout the day is due before the student can 
leave at the end of the day.  The assignments that I give are structured so 
that the students can get them done in the time allotted.  If the student 
does not finish in this given time, then they have had trouble staying on 
task and steps will need to be taken to remedy this problem.  The problems, 
usually, are too much talking, daydreaming, walking around, etc.  If a 
student leaves school before completing their assignments, no credit will be 
given for those assignments.  Of course, there are circumstances that will 
arise that will prohibit a student from staying after school, such as doctor 
appointments, and I will make other arrangements with the student, provided 
they inform me of the situation before leaving for the day. 

In case of an absence due to illness or other circumstances, your child will 
have 2 days for every day that he/she missed (this is subject to change 
depending on the length of the assignments).  All work that we did during 
this time will be recorded in a journal.  It will be the responsibility of 
the student to get the journal and copy down the work that was 
missed.  “Homework Helpers” will be available to answer any general questions 
about an assignment.  If your child has other questions, I will be happy to 
find time through the day or after school to provide help.  Many activities 
that we do will be group activities and cannot be made up.  In this case, I 
will try to find a written assignment that the student can do for 
substitution.