Are you getting worn down by responding to student behavior? If you are, please know we hear you and are working diligently to provide immediate relief and hope. If your answer is no, please reach out to me directly to share the structure, context, and resources that are making it possible for you to manage building operations while also serving as the instructional leader.
Members at all levels across the state continue to report that responding to student behavior is the number one issue impacting their own mental health, well-being, job satisfaction, and frankly, willingness to stay in the profession. Living in a constant reactive state to the unknown behaviors that surface daily is draining both emotionally and physically. It’s a pace that is not sustainable or realistic. Something must be done.
While we hear horrific stories of principals and assistant principals physically and verbally assaulted, we also have principals reporting “everything is great,” with daily operations being smooth, predictable, and realistic. While some are looking forward to the spring and continuing to lead their buildings forward, others are resigning midyear or looking to get out. Why is there such a disparity? Where are you on that continuum?
Creating a positive school culture and systems to support student behavior is an expectation for building leaders. However, the post-COVID student behaviors we’ve seen, combined with a uniform lack of clarity and consistency about the discipline laws, are a significant predictor of job satisfaction for the adults in the building. We know the laws were changed for good reasons. We were harming students with disproportionate discipline policies and practices, and because of those changes, we have drastically reduced exclusionary practices while attempting to keep students in school. However, the effect of the rule changes can feel very different from district to district, or even schools within the district. If you are in a school with adequate resources, staffing, and other MTSS strategies, you may not feel as much pressure as some of your colleagues. If you are a middle school principal with 800 students and no assistant principal, counselor, or other support, you may be in daily survival mode and barely hanging on.
Addressing this disparity is a top priority for us. If we want to keep our amazing leaders working to make the magic happen for students and adults, then we need immediate action from educational leaders and policymakers in our state. And if we want to grow a workforce of future educators, we’d better do everything we can to ensure the profession is realistic and rewarding.
We recently hosted a meeting at AWSP with partner agencies from across the state to tackle this very topic. The workload and expectations placed upon our school leaders are untenable and must be adcdressed. The solutions are not easy due to the complex nature of the mess we find ourselves in. From state law to OSPI rules to board policies, district policies, building-level policies, and student handbooks, there is a lack of clarity and consistency across the board. Throw in changes in society and parental expectations, and most principals would tell you “principaling” after Covid is a completely different experience.
So, how do we tackle this massive statewide problem of practice? It must start with all of us in the K-12 system. Everyone has an angle into this complex problem, and we must all work together to provide both short-term relief and long-term solutions that breathe hope back into the system. What does this look like? Here are just a few ideas that surfaced from the meeting with representatives from the WEA, AWSP, WASA, WSSDA, and the ESDs:
- Continue to advocate for more resources so all schools can implement strong and robust Multi-Tier Systems of Support.
- Work with lawmakers on the pros, cons, and consequences of the current discipline laws.
- Work with OSPI on the urgency to provide clarity on the discipline rules.
- Work with WSSDA to provide clarity and consistency on model board policy.
- Work with WASA to identify gaps in the system where schools are grossly understaffed or supported.
- Work with the ESDs to provide regional training on current laws, resources, community partners, and best practices.
- Partner with WEA on the need for cohesive training for all adults in the creation of positive school culture and student/adult relationships
- Increase the prototypical funding model to trigger more assistant principals in the system
- Work with teacher preparation programs about the realities of the mental health needs of students
- Work with principal preparation programs about the complex nature and vastly different contexts facing our school leaders
- Develop new systems and methods of authentically engaging with parents and communities
- Equip our schools to be in a proactive stance vs reactive with resources like the SupportED School app (developed by principals in Washington)
These are just a few of the ideas discussed and this was only the first meeting of the group. We are just getting started. If you have questions or ideas, and/or would like to get involved, please reach out to me directly.
I must provide one final point of clarification. No one in the room at this last meeting representing any of the above agencies wants to see us revert to the old ways of doing. I said this earlier in this post, but it bears repeating; there was a reason we made changes to the discipline laws. We were harming students with disproportionate discipline policies and practices, and because of those changes, we have drastically reduced exclusionary practices while attempting to keep students in school.
What this group would like to see; however, is the ability for the pendulum to swing back to the middle with resources that accompany the unfunded changes in the law. Until then, we need clarity of the rules, the ability to hold students accountable for harmful behaviors, defined boundaries, and a strong message to students and parents about expectations and what is appropriate for school behavior. To quote one principal in the room, “At what point do the needs of the rest of the students matter more than the one who is disrupting the culture of the entire school?”
Until schools are adequately equipped to address the massively demanding and complex mental and emotional health of our students, we need to empower the adults to create and maintain a safe and positive school culture for each and every student.
Finally, not to add more gasoline to this brushfire, but what happens next year in our schools as districts scramble in a budget crisis by cutting assistant principals? What will those schools look, sound, and feel like? That’s my next blog. Stay tuned.