The School-toPrison Pipeline: How Current Disciplinary Approaches Fail Kids

By Guy Stephens

It’s time we discuss the discipline problem in our schools and how many children are chronically misunderstood and punished in the name of behavior. Children are restrained, secluded, suspended, expelled, and subjected to corporal punishment due to their behavior. At the root of the discipline problem is that many traditional views and approaches around behavior are not working for children who most need our help. In fact, many of the standard methods are ineffective, and some of the approaches are harmful.

Today, many of the traditional techniques used in classrooms are based on rewards and consequences. The reward and consequence model centers on a belief that many people have around behavior, the idea that all behavior is a matter of choice. How often have we heard comments such as, “You need to make better choices?” Or, “You know, you’re making bad choices.” In a lot of classrooms, the focus is on compliance. So often, the guiding ideology is, “How do we get people to comply with what we want them to do?” Children who cannot meet expectations are far more likely to be subjected to discipline. We need to look beyond the idea that all behaviors are a choice. What we can learn from modern neuroscience is that behaviors are often not volitional but rather an autonomic response of our brain and nervous system, which is wired to keep us safe.

Some children are far more likely to be misunderstood than others, as demonstrated by the discipline data from the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. In the data, we find that children with disabilities, Black and brown children, and children with a trauma history are far more likely to be misunderstood and more likely to be disciplined in very punitive ways. Who else is at an increased risk? Children who are adopted, kids in the foster care system, kids with generational trauma, households with mental illness, and households with substance abuse.

About 20 years ago, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente conducted the adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study. This study found that childhood abuse and neglect led to challenges and later-life health and well-being. Children that have experienced childhood trauma and adverse childhood experiences are more likely to be misunderstood.

If we look at the kids prone to big behaviors, these kids need support and help. However, often big behaviors in school lead to harsh discipline. These punitive consequences can even lead kids down the school-to-prison pipeline and into the criminal justice system. Chronically disciplined kids become disengaged. School is not a safe place, nor a place they want to be. When a child disengages, they are more likely to drop out and end up in the juvenile justice system. Let’s look at data on our state and federal prisons. A tremendous number of prisoners are people with disabilities. Data shows that 60% of those incarcerated in state or federal prisons have some form of disability; this isn’t a positive outcome for kids, families, or society. We can do better, we can do better, by changing the way we work with and support kids.

So, the question becomes, why are some kids being chronically misunderstood? Again, many of the approaches used in our schools are not working. Often, these approaches are heavily influenced by operant conditioning and reward and consequence models. When providing rewards and consequences to a child for either meeting or failing to meet behavioral expectations, we assume that all behavior is a matter of choice. There is an underlying belief that a child will be motivated to meet the demands placed upon them with the right incentives or consequences. This approach not only assumes that a child can meet the demands placed on them but that it is a matter of choice when they do not. Behavior is far more complex than just willpower. Many things contribute to behavior. A neuroscience-informed view of behavior is that behavior is biology. We are hardwired for survival, and many behaviors are not, in fact, intentional but rather stress responses that originate from the autonomic nervous system.

Behavior is biology, and behavior is not always intentional. Kids with aggressive episodes are often having a difficult time and are not intending to do harm. We see this by just looking at the definition of the word behave. The word “behave” is defined as “acting in a particular way or doing things in a particular way, or managing the actions of oneself in a particular way.” The problem with this definition is that it assumes intent. The word discipline is not much better. One definition of discipline is “the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.” This definition clearly demonstrates a compliance mindset. However, if you look at the origin of the word discipline, it comes from a word that means to teach. If you look at the word discipline through this lens, we should be moving from doing things to people (compliance-based approaches) to teaching them or doing things with people. When people make mistakes or have behaviors, shouldn’t we be supporting them and helping them to do better in the future?

What else contributes to children being misunderstood? The very language we use has a lot to do with how we see the world and how we see kids that are having a difficult time. Our children are often described as challenging, violent, dangerous, manipulative, maladaptive, attention-seeking, and defiant. If we look at kids through this lens, we’re making judgments that may not be true.

It’s time to shift our mindset and approach around children’s behavior. It’s time to move past approaches that only aim to manipulate behavior to approaches that are traumainformed, relationship-driven, collaborative, and founded in neuroscience. Today we know better and can do better for our children. In the next part of this series, I will address the foundational neuroscience that can help us shift our approach and lead to better outcomes for our children. This article is Part One of Two.

Guy Stephens lives in Southern Maryland with his wife and two amazing children. He is the Founder and Executive Director of The Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint (AASR), a nonprofit he started in 2019. AASR is a community of over 25,000 parents, self-advocates, teachers, school administrators, paraprofessionals, attorneys, related service providers, and others working together to influence change in supporting children whose behaviors are often misunderstood. He has presented at conferences and events across North America and guest lectures for undergraduate and graduate courses as a national expert on the issue of restraint and seclusion.

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