Parents in a Texas school district could soon have to take a class to help their misbehaving children.
The Dallas Independent School District is proposing a change to its student code of conduct that would provide more options for students who get into trouble.
The proposed revision to the district's code of conduct includes two alternatives to sending a student to a discipline alternative education program (DAEP).
One option is six hours of "Saturday school," community service, tutoring or a special project for the student.
A parent or guardian would also need to complete three hours of classes that "will provide support and guidance for area(s) of student concern" and review the student's academic and behavioral progress, according to the district.
The revisions to the code of conduct will be voted on by trustees after a meeting on June 27.
Keisha Crowder Davis, the district's director of student engagement and support, told The Dallas Morning News that the aim is to give campus administrators another tool to address behavior problems while still helping students.
"We've taken the restorative approach as opposed to always penalizing our students," she said.
Newsweek reached out to the Dallas Independent School District via email for comment.
Ben Jones, the principal of Thomas Jefferson High School who served on the code of conduct task force, told the newspaper that the option of work for students is intentionally vague "because it gives us some space to get creative."
The option would not apply to the most serious disciplinary offenses, including assault or drug possession.
The proposal builds on Dallas ISD's yearslong efforts on disciplinary reform.
The district implemented a policy to eliminate out-of-school suspensions for students from pre-K through third grade in 2017. In June 2021, it became the first large urban school district to end suspensions at all grade levels and replace them with visits to Reser centers, where students can remain in school and work on their behavior.
The nonprofit Commit Partnership said earlier this month that the number of suspensions and placements to reset centers in the district had dropped by 80 percent from 2019 to 2023.
"We must understand that a one-size-fits-all disciplinary tactic is not beneficial to all of our students," Miguel Solis, the nonprofit's chief of staff and a former Dallas ISD trustee, said in a statement at the time.
"By providing more personalized and structured strategies such as reset centers, we can eliminate the punishments that continue far into the future."
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