Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

Addressing Disproportionate Discipline in Schools Webinar

I invite you to join our webinar focused on alternatives to discipline in the California Department of Education (CDE) Addressing Disproportionate Discipline Webinar series on March 2 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. This webinar is open to county offices of education (COEs), local educational agencies (LEAs), school administrators, and the community. This virtual event is an opportunity to hear about keeping children in class, the impact of disproportionate discipline practices on Black, Latino, and Native American children, alternatives to suspension and expulsion, and the importance of following California Education Code (EC) when using suspension and expulsion.

Panelists include:

• Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond, President, State Board of Education
• Dr. Paul Gothold, Superintendent, San Diego County Office of Education
• Chris Chatmon, CEO, Kingmakers of Oakland
• Dr. Ingrid Roberson, Assistant Director of Research Learning, CCEE
• Dr. Darin Brawley, Superintendent, Compton Unified School District

The new state budget includes $7.9 billion for learning recovery; specifically, these are one-time funds to be used through 2027–28 on strategies to support academic learning recovery, along with staff and student social and emotional well-being. In an effort to pull resources together and highlight best practices from the field, LEAs are encouraged to email effective strategies they are utilizing and their data to support those strategies to SchoolDiscipline@cde.ca.gov.

The CDE will also post resources online for LEAs to support their efforts in reducing disproportionate discipline that impacts all children, especially Black, Latino, and Native American children.

Register in advance for this webinar via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_da8DxzjaQ_OBpB9nxxSu6A, or you can watch a livestream of the webinar on the CDE Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CAEducation. Also, to support tailoring information presented during this webinar, please submit any questions and/or comments that you would like our panel to answer and address in advance of this webinar to SchoolDiscipline@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,

Tony Thurmond
State Superintendent of Public Instruction