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Title VI: Discipline: Rochester Public Schools (District) (MN) (05-10-5003)

On September 1, 2015, the Rochester Public Schools (District) entered into a voluntary Agreement to resolve a Title VI compliance review that OCR initiated regarding the equitable discipline of students.  According to the Agreement, the District will review its Student Behavior Handbook and make revisions, as appropriate, taking into account any recommendations or suggestions made by the District’s consulting expert and other relevant parties; designate an employee to serve as a Discipline Supervisor and designate administrators who will address complaints regarding matters related to its disciplinary policies; require teaching and support staff to employ a range of corrective measures before referring a student to administrative personnel; instruct the established team at each school to discuss and make recommendations on the equitable implementation of discipline policies, practices, and procedures; place a link on its website to OCR’s Civil Rights Data Collection data for the District and a link to updated data concerning referrals for discipline, suspensions, expulsions, and referrals to law enforcement, disaggregated by race and other factors; ensure that it has in place a system of supports, such as mentoring or counseling, to assist students who display behavior problems; provide annual training programs on discipline to District personnel and students and make informational programs on the District’s discipline policies and procedures and an updated Student Behavior Handbook available to parents or guardians on the District website; collect and evaluate data on an annual basis regarding disciplinary referrals, suspensions, expulsions, and reports to law enforcement; evaluate whether it is implementing its student discipline policies, practices and procedures in a non-discriminatory manner; establish uniform standards for the content of student discipline files at all schools; examine how disciplinary referrals occurring at each school compare to those at other District schools and explore possible causes for any racial disproportion and consider steps that can be taken to eliminate the disproportion to the maximum extent possible; and limit the role of police liaison officers to investigating crimes or potential crimes and not include the officers in recommending or determining student discipline.

Read the Resolution Letter download files PDF (191K) | Read Resolution Agreement download files PDF (318K).

 



   
Last Modified: 01/15/2020