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Attendance, Engagement & Discipline

Attendance, Engagement & Discipline

Student Discipline

Student Conduct; Best Policies, Practices, and Procedures

Restorative Discipline Practices

In the Oceanside Unified School District (OUSD), we recognize that exclusionary discipline practices, including detention, suspension, and expulsion, do little to positively affect student behavior, nor do they assist the student in taking accountability for their actions. In an effort to promote a positive disciplinary approach, OUSD has adopted and implemented Restorative Practices.

Restorative Practices are ways of pro-actively developing relationships and community, as well as repairing community when harm is done. After conflict or harm, Restorative Practices provide a way of thinking about, talking about, and responding to issues and problems by involving all participants to discuss their feelings and opinions, identify what happened, describe how it affected everyone, and find solutions to make things better.

For the last three years, OUSD has worked with administrators, counselors, teachers, and staff (over 500 staff trained) to introduce Restorative Practices. When successfully integrated throughout the school environment, these practices create safe and productive spaces where people develop social emotional skills, strong relationships, and effective problem-solving skills.

  • Owning and recognizing their behavior
  • Making amends with those they have harmed directly and indirectly
  • Successfully reintegrating back into their classrooms and schools

Whenever possible, students who display inappropriate behavior or violate education code must be offered an alternative to at-home suspension. Except for mandatory expulsion cases, a student may be suspended only when other means of correction have failed to bring about proper conduct or when the student's presence causes a danger to others. As a result, OUSD created the Alternative to Suspension (ATS) Program.

Students in grades 6–12 referred to ATS spend the time they would have been suspended completing school work and Restorative Practice Exercises at Lincoln Middle School. Elementary (K–5) students do not have a formal ATS program, but administrators employ Restorative Practices for first-time offenses.

Student Rights & Due Process

Every effort will be made to address student conduct in a positive manner consistent with Education Code 48900.5. Administrators are expected to address disciplinary concerns promptly, fairly, and impartially, ensuring all students are afforded due process. Alternatives to suspension will be considered before more punitive actions, except where law mandates expulsion recommendations.

Mandatory Expulsion Recommendations

  • 48915 c:1 – Possession, selling, or otherwise furnishing a firearm
  • 48915 c:2 – Brandishing a knife
  • 48915 c:3 – Unlawfully selling a controlled substance
  • 48915 c:4 – Committing or attempting to commit sexual assault or battery
  • 48915 c:5 – Possession of an explosive

Additional Policies

Search and Seizure Policy: Under Board Policy 5145.12, officials may search when reasonable suspicion exists that evidence will be found of law or rule violations.

Electronic Devices: Violations of school electronic device rules may result in confiscation. OUSD is not responsible for lost or stolen devices after confiscation.

Drug Testing: To protect student athletes’ health and safety, OUSD may require random or situational drug/alcohol testing. Parents/guardians and students must sign the consent form prior to athletic participation.