Disciplinary Referrals for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students with and without Disabilities: Patterns Resulting from School-Wide Positive Behavior Support

Abstract

The goal of our study was to examine if school-wide positive behavior support implementation was associated with reductions in the discipline gap. We provided outcomes from descriptive and preliminary statistical analyses of three years of office discipline referral data from elementary schools engaged in school-wide positive behavior support implementation and not engaged in school-wide positive behavior support implementation. The percent of students enrolled was compared to the percent of students with office discipline referrals within each racial-ethnic category. The percent of students with office discipline referrals and individualized education plans was compared across racial-ethnic categories. Outcomes indicated that the discipline gap was present in schools engaged in school-wide positive behavior support implementation as well as schools not engaged in implementation with African American students over-represented among students with office discipline referrals. In schools engaged in school-wide positive behavior support, the gap was statistically significantly smaller than in schools not involved in school-wide positive behavior support implementation. Suggestions for future research in culturally responsive school-wide positive behavior support implementation were offered.

Notes

This research was supported in part by U.S. Department of Education Grant No. H326S030002. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the policy of the Department of Education, and no official endorsement by the Department should be inferred. The authors acknowledge the many contributions of the Positive Behavior Support research group and the School-wide Information System research group at the University of Oregon to building the database that made this research possible.