Maryland’s board of education last week adopted student discipline regulations aimed at keeping students in school, ending racial disparities in suspensions, and seeking more constructive punishments.
Under the new regulations, districts must adopt policies that reduce long-term out-of-school suspensions and expulsions. Those actions could only be used when a student posed an imminent threat of serious harm or was engaged in chronic or extreme disruptive behavior.
Local school boards must revise policies by the beginning of next school year. They can take their own approaches, but the state will monitor the impact on minority and special education students.
