A Description of Elementary Classroom Discipline Referral Patterns

Abstract

There remains a focus on how schools provide support to students with behavioral problems who require special education services. Previous researchers and practitioners have used office discipline referrals to identify needs and strengths, and to evaluate the effectiveness of school-wide discipline efforts. This article extends the use of office discipline referrals to examine patterns across several elementary schools from two different states. Office discipline referrals originating from these elementary school classrooms were evaluated across (a) behaviors, (b) administrative decision, (c) grade level, and (d) month of year. Results suggest while some variability exists across individual schools, stable patterns for schools and states emerged. Description of office discipline referral patterns and implications for decision-making, establishing effective classroom systems, and future research are presented.