Code of Student Conduct (CSC) Tutorial

1. Code of Student Conduct (CSC) Tutorial Lesson 2 Purpose of theCode of Student Conduct (CSC) –From Compliance to Civility This tutorial has been prepared for the NJ Department of Education by CSCD@RU,and was supported in whole by a U.S. Department of Education Partnerships in Character Education Program grant.

2. Regulatory background The Department of Education regulations establish the legal framework and set expectations for school districts efforts to achieve safe and civil schools. They serve as the core standards for expectations for student behavior, just as the Core Curriculum Content Standards set the stage for instructional expectations for New Jersey teachers and students.

3. Regulatory background Purpose The purpose of the chapter of regulations that includes the requirements for the CSC clearly states that: These rules specify minimum standards for district boards of educationin establishing policies and procedures and in operating programs to support the social, emotional and physical development of students. (N.J.A.C. 6A:16-1.1) … and offer the following definition of the CSC: “Code of student conduct” means standards, policies and proceduresestablished by district boards of education for positive student development and student behavioral expectations on school grounds, including on school buses or at school-sponsored functions, and, as appropriate, conduct away from school grounds, in accordance with N.J.A.C. 6A:16-7.6. (N.J.A.C. 6A:16-1.3)

4. Regulatory background The intent of the Department and the State Board of Education was to signal a shift from a focus on student behavior problems and consequences for student conduct (necessary though they are) to a focus on positive student development. Listen to how Dr. Susan King (then superintendent of the Montvale School District) describes her understanding of the need for revision of the district CSC:

5. Regulatory background The Grand Design – What the regulations intend to achieve The regulations identify six goals that the district’s CSC must be designed to achieve: • Foster the health, safety and social and emotional well-being of students; • Support the establishment and maintenance of civil, safe, secure, supportive and disciplined school environments conducive to learning; • Promote achievement of high academic standards; • Prevent the occurrence of problem behaviors;

6. Regulatory background The Grand Design – What the regulations intend to achieve Goals (cont’d) • Establish parameters for the intervention and remediation of student problem behaviors at all stages of identification; and • Establish parameters for school responses to violations of the codeof student conduct that take into account, at a minimum, the severity of the offenses, the developmental ages of the student offenders and students’ histories of inappropriate behaviors (N.J.A.C. 6A:16-7.1(b)). We will look in greater detail at the CSC regulations and how these requirements are monitored by the NJDOE through the New JerseyQuality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC).

7. Defining Our Terms – What does it mean to have a code of student conduct? Before delving further into the regulations, let’s look at what it means to have a CSC in the first place. Defining the critical terms you will use in revising your CSC is especially important because so much hangs on creating agreed upon expectations for student behavior. Definitions serve as the metrics for behavioral codes. For example, if we can’t adequately define what a ‘fight’ is, how can we expect students to understand and accept rules designed to prevent them? The definitions for offenses reported on the Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting System -EVVRS- should be referenced when identifying and defining student offenses in the CSC (see http://homeroom.state.nj.us/index.htm). This is one reason why issues such as acceptable dress codes become such matters of contention. Defining our terms also allows us to examine and reflect upon our assumptions about what we want to achieve through a code of student conduct.

8. Defining Our Terms – What does it mean to have a code of student conduct? For our purpose we define ‘schools’ as the primary public institution to which our society has given the responsibility of socializing young people to their role as citizens. A ‘code’ is a law or rule, and also a way of converting information from one source to another (think of the Morse code or translation from verbal language to sign language). ‘Conduct’ refers to our deportment or how we direct, control and manage ourselves.

9. Defining Our Terms – What does it mean to have a code of student conduct? ‘School Grounds’ is defined in the NJDOE regulations (N.J.A.C.6A:16-1.3) as follows: School grounds means and includes land, portions of land, structures, buildings, and vehicles, when used for the provision of academic or extracurricular programs sponsored by the school district or community provider and structures that support these buildings, such as school district wastewater treatment facilities, generating facilities, and other central service facilities including, but not limited to, kitchens and maintenance shops. School grounds also includes other facilities as defined in N.J.A.C. 6A:26-1.2, playgrounds, and recreational places owned by local municipalities, private entities or other individuals during those times when the school district has exclusive use of a portion of such land.

10. Defining Our Terms – What does it mean to have a code of student conduct? Wikipedia provides an instructive working definition of a‘code of conduct’ for organizations developed by the International Federation of Accountants. “Principles, values, standards, or rules of behavior that guide the decisions, procedures and systems of an organization in a way that (a) contributes to the welfare of its key stakeholders, and (b) respects the rights of all constituents affected by its operations.” This is a useful definition if we ask ourselves the following question: “In schools, who are the key stakeholders whose welfare is important?” While the S in CSC focuses on student conduct, it is immediately clear that school staff, parents and the welfare of the community are all impacted by student conduct.

11. Defining Our Terms – What does it mean to have a code of student conduct? Let’s return now to the CSC definition in the regulations: “Code of student conduct” means standards, policies and procedures established by district boards of education for positive student development and student behavioral expectations on school grounds, including on school buses or at school-sponsored functions, and, as appropriate, conduct away from school grounds, in accordance with N.J.A.C. 6A:16-7.6. (N.J.A.C. 6A:16-1.3) This definition establishes the basis for understanding the importance of getting your CSC right: positive student growth.

12. Defining Our Terms – What does it mean to have a code of student conduct? The purpose of having a CSC is not just to produce civil conditions so that learning may take place, but to ground the entire educational process in the most fundamental purpose of schooling: to create civilized people. What does it mean to be civilized? To paraphrase TheAmerican Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, to be civilized is to have a highly developed society and culture which shows evidence of moral and intellectual advancement through human, ethical, and reasonable behavior.

13. Defining Our Terms – What does it mean to have a code of student conduct? In other words, the goal of education which the CSC serves is to teach us the rules of the road so that we may become good citizens in our democracy, starting with learning how to live together successfully in the classroom and school. The CSC is an effective vehicle for setting injunctive norms (the laws, regulations and school rules that tell us what we should do). However, for a school culture to work as well as it can in support of all members of the community, the descriptive norms (the behavior of those around that suggests what is acceptable) must be consistent with the injunctive norms.

14. Defining Our Terms – What does it mean to have a code of student conduct? There are two central tasks involved in successfully achieving the goal of creating civilized young people. The first task is to teach the importance of social conventions and norms . . .

15. Defining Our Terms – What does it mean to have a code of student conduct? . . . and the second is to develop students’ social skills and moral sense of fairness and concern for the welfare of others. Both tasks are achieved through the policies that school district officials create, the procedures that are developed, implemented and reinforced, and through the quality of human relationships, as well as through direct instruction. In Lessons 3 and 4 we will examine in detail how to approach these tasks in the context of the CSC.