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Committee declines to waive second reading on overhauled student-discipline policy
Summary
The Madison School District policy committee withheld a recommendation to waive the second reading for the substantially revised student-discipline policy (5110.4), citing extensive changes tied to Connecticut law, federal IDEA requirements and new procedural mandates for suspension and expulsion hearings.
The Madison School District policy committee unanimously agreed that the district's revised student-discipline policy (5110.4) requires further review and should not be advanced without a second reading. Speaker 1 described the policy as "lengthy" with many substantive changes tied to statutory updates.
Speaker 1 said the 2023 General Assembly changes codified at Connecticut General Statute Section 10-2a prompted broad revisions to the district's discipline approach: the policy updates the definition of bullying and introduces a definition for "challenging behavior," expands the definition of protected class to include assault and human-trafficking victims, adds conduct categories that may lead to discipline (including demeaning language, imagery and synthetically created images), and authorizes districts to broaden their definition of generative artificial intelligence beyond specific platforms.
The policy also incorporates new procedural requirements for suspension and expulsion hearings. Speaker 1 noted that Public Act provisions (as cited in the packet) require school personnel to consult the district's local homeless-education liaison before proceeding with suspension or expulsion when a student may be homeless, and that IDEA protections require provision of services after a student with an IEP has been suspended for 10 school days in a school year. "So, even though there's a lot of changes in this one, I would not recommend waiving the second read on this one," Speaker 1 said.
Speaker 2 added that administrators receive training over the summer on the updated procedures and that the district is implementing changes, but both speakers acknowledged the policy's scope and complexity warrant additional review at committee or during a formal second-reading process. The committee did not record a formal vote to forward the item with a waiver; instead, members left it subject to the normal second-reading process.
Next steps: the committee will not recommend waiving the second reading for 5110.4; the policy will proceed through the district's standard review timeline for further consideration and possible revision before being forwarded to the full board.
