Des Moines, Iowa — The Iowa House has sent the Senate a bill that would set a statewide policy for disciplining disruptive and violent students in public K-12 schools.
It would require an in-school suspension and a counseling session after the first two incidents, but a third episode of violent or disruptive behavior would require the school to consider transferring the student to another class or learning environment. The bill also sets up a process for educators to report incidents of classroom violence and destruction of school property to the State Ombudsman for investigation. Representative Skyler Wheeler, a Republican from Hull, is chairman of the House Education Committee.
Wheeler says lawmakers are hearing from teachers who don’t believe disruptive behavior in the classroom is being addressed.
Representative Sharon Steckman, a Democrat from Mason City who’s a retired teacher, says she’d like the policies to be required in Iowa’s private schools as well, but she supports the bill.
Representative Sue Cahill, a Democrat from Marshalltown who’s a retired teacher, also voted for the bill.
However, Cahill says she’s hoping the Senate changes it, to ensure schools have other options for kids in kindergarten and early elementary grades rather than an immediate in-school suspension after an initial fight or disruption in class.
The bill passed the House on an 89-to-six vote. If it becomes law, administrators will be required to notify parents if their children have been violent or disruptive in school. The Iowa Department of Education’s report on student violence in Iowa classrooms indicates there were nearly two-thousand assaults during the last school year, causing more than 17 hundred injuries. The agency indicates schools reported more than 11 hundred incidents of property damage caused by students during the last school year.
