Washington updates student discipline rules for public schools

New discipline guidelines for public school students will go into effect across Washington state next month.

While educators say the changes are necessary to address disruptive post-pandemic classroom behavior, the policies are drawing criticism from some student and family advocates.

The Washington state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction adopted the updated discipline rules on June 10.

Last August, the agency enacted an emergency version of the rules, “in response to ongoing confusion and challenges surrounding the interpretation” of existing policies set in 2019.

Those emergency rules provide the foundation for the permanent update, which will take effect July 11.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal said last week in an emailed statement to the Standard that the updated rules will keep limits in place on long-term suspensions and expulsions, maintain expectations for schools to communicate with families over student behavior issues and cut down on bureaucracy.

“Student behaviors have worsened due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, increased prevalence of cell phones, anxiety over local and global crises, and more, and the former rules created a disincentive to address classroom behaviors in the moment,” Reykdal said.

However, some student advocates have said the new rules undermine student protections and that Reykdal’s office did not seek enough community feedback.

“Talking with community partners, family groups, et cetera, I think everyone’s pretty much in agreement that it’s a rollback of student discipline reforms that were made in 2019,” said League of Education Voters Foundation Chief Engagement Officer Eric Holzapfel.

A nonprofit that conducts policy and research around equity in education, the League of Education Voters Foundation has opposed the discipline policy changes since the emergency rules were enacted last year.

In a letter sent out to supporters in March, the League of Education Voters Foundation warned that the new rules “could lead to increased exclusion from classrooms, disproportionately affecting students of color, students with disabilities, students in foster care, students experiencing homelessness, and other vulnerable students.”

Specific concerns cited by the group included the possibility of students being removed from class without support, loosening rules around alternative discipline, weaker state guidance on when to exclude students from class and weaker parent notification requirements.

Derick Harris, executive director of the Black Education Strategy Roundtable, also voiced criticism in an article published last month by Public News Service.

“This appears to me to be some rollback to a bygone era of zero-tolerance policy … Which we know within the Black community is a streamlined pathway from the school to the prison,” Harris said.

Developing the rules

The emergency rules implemented last August changed the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s discipline policies by providing definitions for discipline, corrective action, classroom exclusion, and emergency removal of a student from school.

Under these rules, teachers can exclude students from the classroom for a maximum of two days at a time if their district’s local policy allows for it.

The emergency rules also removed a provision requiring educators to “identify other forms of discipline that school personnel should administer before or instead of administering classroom exclusion, suspension, or expulsion.”

This provision isn’t in the new permanent rules, either. But Katie Hannig, a spokesperson for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, said Wednesday that “the updated rules do not remove the requirement for educators to consider alternative disciplinary actions prior to classroom exclusion.”

She pointed to a different part of the rules that says, “Except in emergency circumstances, the teacher first must attempt one or more alternative forms of corrective action.”

The primary difference between the emergency and permanent rules is that under the new permanent rules, schools must collect data on disciplinary actions taken at each school and submit it to a statewide database.

Find out more

The new policies can be read in full on the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction website.

OSPI collaborated with the Association of Washington School Principals, the Washington Association of School Administrators, the Washington State School Directors’ Association and the Washington Education Association when crafting the 2024 emergency rules.

Washington Educators Association Soundview Council President Filma Fontanilla described the rules as “a step forward.”

“Educators need additional resources to support students in meeting behavioral expectations and to address their unmet needs. WEA members spoke out and OSPI heard us,” Fontanilla said in an emailed statement.

Concerns about public input

The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction began the permanent rulemaking process in October 2024 and filed proposed permanent rules based on the emergency rules in January.

There were opportunities for public comment on the proposed permanent rules between late February and early March of this year, including at four in-person meetings in the Tri-Cities area, Spokane, Federal Way, and Vancouver. The process to enact the emergency rules did not require the agency to seek public comment.

While League of Education Voters Foundation staff attended OSPI’s public hearings and participated in the public comment period earlier this year, Holzapfel said the nonprofit still found the state agency’s community engagement lacking.

“We’re really concerned about the lack of public hearings that there were, the lack of announcement around them,” Holzapfel said. “They weren’t really communicated to local schools or parent groups or student groups in the area.”

The four public hearings were each held from 4 to 6 p.m., which Holzaphel said limited in-person access to parents and students.

The League of Education Voters Foundation had a meeting with OSPI staff about their concerns on May 29.

Holzapfel said the group’s main ask was to “start this process over” and bring more voices into the process, including young people who’ve faced disciplinary action.

“Let’s bring in parent groups, let’s bring in student groups, and let’s have a holistic discussion on what our values are, what the intentions are of these rules,” he said.

While a second meeting has been scheduled, Holzaphel said that agency staff have indicated the permanent discipline policies will go into effect unchanged on July 11.

“We are committed to monitoring the implementation of the updated rules closely and making adjustments as needed,” Reykdal said.