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Board hears discipline matrix and vaping response; staff to return with concrete steps
Summary
District staff reviewed suspension and expulsion rules, restorative alternatives, and a multi-pronged vaping response including cessation programming, wellness center interventions and potential vape detectors. Trustees asked for consistent matrix language and an action plan by September.
The Western Placer Unified School District board received a detailed presentation on student discipline policy, restorative practices and new steps to address student vaping, then asked staff to return in the fall with concrete, site-consistent procedures.
Emily Ortiz, director of student services, and legal consultant Megan Macy walked trustees through the district discipline matrix and the Education Code framework that governs suspension and expulsion. Ortiz explained the district’s approach favors alternatives to suspension whenever possible and noted one key change in state law: administrators may no longer suspend solely for willful defiance or disruption in many cases, shifting emphasis to restorative practices and MTSS (multi-tiered systems of support).
On vaping, Ortiz said the district is expanding “brief intervention” responses at wellness centers and exploring more intensive cessation programs for repeat incidents. She described past attempts at restorative evening sessions that included parents and said the district is seeking scalable group-based cessation curricula similar to offerings from Stanford Medicine. Staff also reported piloting vape-detection devices and estimating a 67-site secondary deployment would cost approximately $85,238.75 (including permitting and infrastructure), while noting detection technology can produce false positives and requires procedural safeguards and camera coordination to identify individuals reliably.
Trustees pressed for clearer and more uniform consequences across sites. One board member urged that the district publish, for students and families, a clear offense-by-offense matrix listing "what will happen" on first, second and third offenses. Ortiz agreed to draft specific matrix language for vaping—specifying when cessation programming is required, how suspensions will be applied for THC vapes versus nicotine, and how site-level differences will be minimized—then return with an update by the end of September. The board also requested data collection on the number of students turned away from dances or denied participation due to consequences and asked staff to report recidivism and program efficacy metrics.
What happens next: staff will calibrate site administrators, expand training in restorative practices, finalize choices for cessation curricula and wellness-center interventions, and present a districtwide matrix and an implementation timeline to trustees in the fall.
