APS Embraces 'Culture of Care' to Transform School Discipline

Districtwide shift to restorative practices prioritizes student dignity, emotional support, and conflict resolution skills, driven by student input.

Albuquerque Public Schools is laying the groundwork for a comprehensive overhaul of how disciplinary issues are addressed in schools, with a greater emphasis on expanding restorative approaches.

The shift aims to equip students with the tools they need to self-regulate and teach them productive ways of dealing with conflict. Those on the front lines of this work say they’re trying to establish a “Culture of Care” throughout the district.

“This work is transformational,” said APS Chief Academic Officer Sheri Jett.

Jett said some people mistakenly believe that consequences go out the door when a school adopts restorative practices. To the contrary, she said, it’s essential that students continue to face consequences for infractions; however, she noted that educators should mete out consequences that preserve the dignity of the child.

Consistency and predictability are important, Jett said, adding that it’s also vital for adults to develop good relationships with the students they’re working with.

Listening to students

APS leaders say this work has become a priority because students are asking for stronger relationships, emotional support, fair treatment, and adults who can help them regulate before problems escalate.

They point to open-ended responses received from students through the Skills, Habits and Mindsets Student Survey, which is administered twice a year.

Among the things they’re hearing from students:

• “I think adults should pay more attention to how students are feeling.
• “When I’m crying, please don't ignore it. Talk with me.”
• “Understand me and listen to my side of the story.”
• “Be respectful to us students no matter what.”
• “Be kinder and understand that we can easily get overwhelmed.”

Joint taskforce

Leading the work at APS are Associate Superintendent for School Climate and Supports Kenneth Salazar and Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein.

“We’re trying to create systems and conditions to enable students to grow,” Bernstein said, noting that while previous attempts at this work have fallen short, she’s confident that this iteration will be able to grow deeper roots.

Fueling Bernstein’s optimism is what she’s hearing from teachers at the 10 pilot schools that have adopted the restorative approach.

“What I heard from the (teachers) is, ‘This makes a difference in my classroom with the kids I teach. This makes a difference in the school where I teach,’” she added.

Moving the work forward is a joint APS/ATF Culture of Care District Taskforce, which is chaired by Salazar and Bernstein and meets quarterly. The taskforce has 30 members, including teachers, principals and representatives from several APS departments.

That group is broken down into working groups that focus on four specific areas:

• The Safety Task Force is focused on reviewing site safety plans and teams at all APS schools, creating a consistent framework for all APS schools and identifying training for the different teams.  
• The Elementary Conflict Mediation group is tasked with identifying an elementary peer conflict mediation model, creating implementation timelines, and creating and identifying resources to support peer mediation models.
• A third team is looking into student success centers and the role of deans at secondary schools. Specifically, they’re working to identify successful student success center models, figure out resources to support those centers and come up with implementation timelines while also looking at the job description of school deans. 
• The final team is delving into site discipline plans and code of conduct revisions with an eye on revising codes of conduct to incorporate culture of care practices for lower-level infractions.

Rollout and early adoption

Ten schools have already received culture of care training and have begun implementing it at their schools. Those early adopter schools are:

• Cibola High School
• Eldorado High School
• Tres Volcanes
• Janet Kahn
• Jimmy Carter
• Taylor
• Bandelier
• Kirtland
• Montezuma 
• And Marie Hughes

Nine additional schools had teams trained this fall, with at least 17 additional schools slated to receive training in the spring. The district expects that 57 schools will have been trained by the end of the current school year.

“We want to create the systems and conditions to enable students to grow their skills, habits and mindsets for success,” Salazar said.