Jefferson City Public Schools work to improve behavior issues

Jefferson City Public Schools officials are working to behavior issues across the school district.

Monday, the district’s behavior task force gave a report to the board of education of things that are set to be implemented this coming school year.

Starting next week, teachers and staff will complete training with behavior interventionists before the school year begins.

Behavior incidents in the JCPS district spiked from the 2013-2014 school year to the 2014-2015 year.

In the 2014-2015 school year, there were 195 disciplinary incidents up from 104 the previous year, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

That was higher than the number of incidents in Columbia Public Schools which had nearly double the enrollment in 2014-2015 at 57 incidents.

The JCPS total incident rate was also above the state average. You can view the JCPS discipline incidents from DESE here.

“The behavior has spiked,” JCPS Director of Secondary Education Dr. Tammy Ridgeway said. “We have to do together, work together to promote a positive environment. And so that includes not only behavior consequences, but it also has to do with setting appropriate behavior and ideas for the classroom and how to make it a positive learning environment.”

Some things the task force worked on this summer that will be implemented this coming school year include specific guidelines for disciplinary consequences for each grade level and number of offenses, appropriate language and enforcing the existing dress code.

The behavior task force was created in April. It is made up of principals, teachers, behavior analysts counselors and para-professionals.

The number of disciplinary incidents from the 2015-2016 school year is set to be released next month.