Richland One officials say Reset program cut elementary expulsion hearings and yields high completion rates

At the March 17, 2026 meeting of the Richland One Curriculum & Instruction (CNI) committee, district staff detailed the Reset program, describing it as an elementary‑level alternative to suspension and expulsion that pairs academic instruction with intensive social‑emotional and wraparound services.

"Reset is the alternative to suspension and expulsion for students," Dr. Suber told the committee, outlining a multi‑tiered approach that she said combines academic support, behavior‑management plans, parent training and multi‑agency collaboration. She said the program, which began in the 2017–18 school year, works from a tier‑3 MTSS (Multi‑Tiered System of Supports) framework to target students at highest risk of removal from school.

Committee members heard district data showing a long‑term decline in expulsion hearings after Reset began. Dr. Suber cited a drop from 223 elementary expulsion hearings before the program to 101 after adding a site in 2019–20 and to 47 hearings in the most recent reporting period; she noted a COVID‑era bump in 2021 before the trend resumed downward. "We went from 223 to 47 hearings just with a tier‑three intervention put in place," she said.

Officials described program scale and outcomes: Reset has served 483 elementary students, the summer "Camp Rise" has served about 316 children, and staff reported a completion rate of 94.18% (reported for the 2024–25 school year). Dr. Suber said the standard placement length is 45 days (four to six weeks), chosen to allow time to connect students to services and show whether interventions are effective; lengths are extended in some individual cases "if a student has been diagnosed" or needs additional therapeutic work.

The district also presented participant demographics and supports. Dr. Suber said roughly 71% of Reset participants qualify for free lunch, 89% were African‑American, 23% had special‑education indicators and about 81% were male. She described wraparound services that include partnerships with mental‑health providers, mentoring organizations, family‑strengthening programs and in‑school transition planning where behavior interventionists make four post‑transition visits to support reintegration.

Committee members praised Reset as a replicable model and said other districts have sought to learn from the program. "The start of the good work that we've done thus far — this was a great blueprint," Dr. Rivers said, while Dr. Williams and others noted presentations at conferences and interest from districts in Georgia and Texas.

At the same time, staff and committee members flagged operational challenges. Dr. Suber said the program struggles to retain trained behavior interventionists because pay and career pathways do not always match the work; she said three interventionists left this year. Officials also cited limited classroom capacity (typically eight students per Reset classroom), resulting wait lists when demand rises, and the need to prioritize expansion or strengthen tier‑2 supports so fewer students escalate to tier‑3 placements.

Members pressed for greater longitudinal tracking of participants. Dr. Suber acknowledged gaps in systematic follow‑up after students return to home schools and said the district is developing a tracking and evaluation tool to measure long‑term impact and to inform decisions about scaling and funding. "We're working on a tool that can actually track the students for us," she said, noting the effort will help determine what to expand, repurpose or sunset.

The committee did not take formal action at the meeting; the presentation was informational and the session adjourned by Commissioner Clyburn with no objections. The district said next steps include work on staffing strategies, capacity planning and deployment of a monitoring tool to better measure outcomes and prevention effects beyond immediate program completion.