SUSPENDING SUSPENSIONS: "IF KIDS AREN'T AT SCHOOL, THEY'RE NOT LEARNING."

Two schools in Hudson, N.H. will stop sending students home from school for bad behavior under an in-school suspension program. Better late than never? It's been nearly 30 years ago since the National Association of Secondary School Principals issued a legal memorandum encouraging its members to seek alternatives to suspension as a primary form of discipline. The organization noted that students removed by suspension and expulsion are inevitably those who need to be kept in school. Further research has shown what many have long suspected: Giving kids a break from school isn't much of a deterrent from further behavior problems. Suspension also contributes to failing grades and high dropout rates. "Logic dictates that if kids aren’t at school, they aren’t learning,” Hudson School District Superintendent Randy Bell told the Nashua Telegraph. "These are kids who need to be in school the most.”