The Delaware ESSA framework document states that the Delaware Department of Education will partner with other agencies and community organizations to promote cultural competency and trauma-informed practice among teachers and administrators and develop evidence-based technical assistance and guidance through a trauma-informed and culturally competent lens.

This webpage provides links to resources and training materials on trauma-informed schools, character education, and restorative practices.

(a) The Department shall compile and release an annual report on student discipline in all schools as follows:

• (1) The analysis must be based on data, as permitted under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1232g, collected over the 3 most recent consecutive school years.

• (2) The report must be posted on the Department’s website no later than October 30.

• (3) The report shall include both statewide totals and individual school data, for each of the school years in the report, on the issuance of out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, alternative school assignments, and in-school suspensions, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender, grade level, limited English proficiency, incident type, discipline duration, and if the student is identified as having a disability.

• (4) The report must identify, for each school year in the report, schools that meet any of the following thresholds:

• a. Calculations under this subsection should exclude subgroups that contain fewer than 15 students.

• b. A school with an out-of-school suspension rate for all students or any 1 subgroup that exceeds any of the following:

• 1. A rate of 20 suspensions per 100 students for the 2018 through 2019 school year.
• 2. A rate of 15 suspensions per 100 students for the 2019 through 2020 school year and each school year thereafter.

• c. A school for which the out-of-school suspension gap between the lowest-suspended racial subgroup and the highest suspended racial subgroup, or the suspension gap between students with disabilities and students without disabilities, exceeds any of the following:

• 1. Twenty percent for the 2018 through 2019 school year.
• 2. Fifteen percent for the 2019 through 2020 school year.
• 3. Ten percent for the 2020 through 2021 school year and each school year thereafter.

(b) If a school is identified as meeting a threshold under paragraph (a)(4) of this section for 3 consecutive school years, the Department shall notify the school of this status by December 1 and the school must do all of the following:

• (1) Review its discipline policies, practices, and data.

• (2) If a school has already implemented restorative justice practices, the school must review the interventions being used to assure research-based quality, scope of training provided, and follow-up support to assure proper implementation. Restorative justice practices program improvements should be made based on this review.

• (3) Submit a plan to the Department that identifies the strategies the school will implement beginning in the following school year to reduce the use of exclusionary disciplinary practices or disproportionate use of exclusionary disciplinary practices with racial subgroups or students with disabilities, or both.

• a. The plan may be part of their school improvement plan.

• b. The plan must be developed with input from students, parents, educators, administrators, and community stakeholders to incorporate strategies to promote fairness and equity in discipline.

• c. The plan may increase or improve professional development opportunities for educators, administrators, and staff. Components of such professional development may include 1 or more of the following:

• 1. Restorative practices.
• 2. Trauma informed care.
• 3. Implicit bias awareness.
• 4. Cultural competency.
• 5. Classroom management.
• 6. Other appropriate programming.

• d. The plan must be approved at either a public local school board meeting or a charter school’s public board of directors meeting.

• e. The school must submit the plan to the Department and post the plan on the school’s internet website no later than the beginning of the following school year.

• f. The school shall submit to the Department an annual progress report describing the implementation of the plan and post the progress report on the school’s internet website no later than October 30. The school may cease submitting a progress report when the school does not meet a threshold under paragraph (a)(4) of this section for 3 consecutive years.

(c) The Department may promulgate regulations necessary to implement and enforce this section. The Department must consult with school administrators, parents, educators, and other stakeholders in developing regulations under this section.