A trend is emerging in some schools, where troubled students are being kept in schools rather than taken out. For example, the New York Times reported this week on a Florida school that has a Zero Tolerance policy but has decided that they can change that policy to allow students who commit minor crimes such as misdemeanors, to stay in school. However, this isn’t just in one school district. There are schools all over the country that are doing the same. The school district in Florida is in the populous Jefferson Parish, and they have decided that rather than removing students who commit crimes or are having problems at school, they are going to try a different approach.
These students will receive counseling in class and more individual attention and iti s something that is happening all over the country. For example, NPR looked at some of the schools in Philadelphia which had tried to implement a similar system that was showing major promise, but although the city has spent millions trying to change the current school system but it is not working out quite the way that they want it to. In fact, some experts out there think that public schools have simply become a place for “dumping” kids that were not able to get into private schools, which makes for a bad situation for students, teachers and parents as well.
In Louisiana, the board of education is looking at funding options. They not only need to upgrade the technology in the classroom but in some cases they are fighting a battle over the technology ugprades. Across the middle part of the nation in Philly, schools put Chromebooks in the classroom to teach children on technology that is out there. This moth, many high schoolers in their senior years are beginning to submit college applications and begin to prepare for the move to college. This is a huge deal for those kids and getting students through troubled times and to that point is the whole reason for schools to have these programs.