Letter to Editor by Legal Aid attorney

Legal Aid attorney Julie Cortes had a letter published in The Cleveland Plain Dealer today.   Click here for a PDF version, or review the full text below:

Take positive approach to correcting behavior: letter to the editor
June 28, 2013

Margaret Bernstein's June 20 column about the Positive Education Program highlights the important issue of how school districts deal with behavior problems. Most rely on zero-tolerance policies that fail to get at the root cause of behavior problems and instead exclude students from a meaningful education. Students who are suspended or expelled have lower graduation rates and often become involved in the juvenile justice system.

Positive behavior intervention policies teach, reward and consistently expect good behavior. Students respond because they know they will be recognized for doing the right thing.

Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics endorsed the use of positive behavior support models in schools, relying on research concluding that zero-tolerance policies are harsh, inequitably applied and fail to enhance the learning environment.

Many troubled children will never have access to PEP. But if all districts were to use positive behavior intervention polices, then those children might have a fighting chance at educational success in all school settings.

Julie C. Cortes, Cleveland

Cortes is an attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, focused on issues of education law.