New approach boosts discipline

Ky. joins national move to improve schools

with behavior program

At Bullitt Lick Middle School last year, school uniforms were causing more problems than they were solving.

Put in place a decade ago, the dress code was expected to reduce distractions and discipline problems.

Instead, Bullitt Lick found that more than 75 percent of its disciplinary cases resulted from students breaking the code.

"We were spending way too much time on the dress code" at the expense of academic achievement, said principal Scott Hrebicik.

But with the help of the Kentucky Center for Instructional Discipline, Bullitt Lick has developed a new attitude toward discipline, relaxing its dress code and working to keep kids in class.

The result -- suspensions have dropped to a fraction of the 200 the school issued in 2005-06, and attendance has increased.

Bullitt Lick is one of three schools in Bullitt County and 150 across Kentucky working with the state discipline center to implement a program called Positive Behavior Support.

Rather than having teachers create their own form of classroom management, Positive Behavior Support focuses on a schoolwide set of rules, consequences and reactions for misbehaving students.

"From the time a child steps foot on the school bus to the time they step off the bus, they should know exactly what the expectations are in every situation," said Mike Waford, director of the disciplinary center...

This from the Courier-Journal