Courtesy graphic: Hutto Independent School District
HUTTO – Ensuring that students who break the same rules receive the same consequence, no matter which school they attend, their economic status or their ethnicity, is a challenge Hutto Independent School District staff is addressing.
Kyle Ruggirello, assistant director of student affairs, told the Hutto ISD board of trustees at a recent meeting that the district is working to adopt changes which “address the disparities between student demographic groups and decrease the rate of student discipline referrals.” The District Improvement Plan lists this initiative as a goal to be accomplished by spring 2024.
Ruggirello said disparities can be the result of teachers having different standards of when they’ll send a student to the office and campuses documenting student office visits differently, depending on whether a punishment was assigned.
Ruggirello also acknowledged that staff using a combination of paper and electronic documentation as opposed to documenting everything electronically contributes to the issue. Overall, Hutto ISD’s discipline referral rate decreased from fall 2021 to fall 2022. The number of incidents dropped from 843 to 811, while the total student population rose from 9,110 to 9,684.
The demographic breakdown of referrals has also changed over the past year.
Students classified as economically disadvantaged made up 34% of the district population in fall of 2021 but were responsible for 54% of disciplinary referrals.
The same time period in 2022 saw an increase in the number of economically disadvantaged students and a smaller increase in disciplinary actions, with 43% of the students now receiving 56% of referrals.
Black students, who made up 13% of the population in 2021 and 2022, saw the number of disciplinary incidents drop from 26% to 21%.
The Hispanic student body grew from 46% to 47%, and their referrals rose from 44% to 49%.
The percentage of white students dropped from 32% to 30% in Hutto ISD, and their disciplinary referrals dropped from 28% to 22%.
Ruggirello attributes the decrease in referrals to a combination of district initiatives, such as a new focus on social emotional learning, training staff on trauma-informed care practices and implementing substance abuse education.
Ruggirello said the district is also conducting training to standardize how referrals are documented.
Dr. Thymai Dong, director of diversity, equity and inclusion, shares the task of improving equality in disciplinary actions.
She recently launched campus-based equity committees at six district schools.
“The purpose of these committees is to engage in dialogue around educational equity closer to the sites of teaching and learning, and our students,” she said. “The members of the committees range from principals to teachers to parents/ guardians and community members.”
Dong says restorative practices are a way to shift the discipline approach from being punitive to one that is centered on building relationships and community with students.
The objective is to give kids a safe space to discuss their feelings and learn how to move forward more effectively.
Dong and Ruggirello have both attended training in restorative practices and will begin extending those practices to campuses this year.
“One thing to keep in mind is the purpose of student discipline is to teach,” Ruggirello said.
“It’s not just to teach them to read and write and do math but to be better people and better citizens.
We really want to approach discipline as a way to teach kids what to do better next time, and how to make better choices.”
