(1) In accordance with this section and within the framework of the district school board’s code of student conduct, teachers and other instructional personnel shall have the authority to undertake any of the following actions in managing student behavior and ensuring the safety of all students in their classes and school and their opportunity to learn in an orderly and disciplined classroom:(a) Establish classroom rules of conduct.
(b) Establish and implement consequences, designed to change behavior, for infractions of classroom rules.
(c) Have disobedient, disrespectful, violent, abusive, uncontrollable, or disruptive students removed from the classroom for behavior management intervention.
(d) Have violent, abusive, uncontrollable, or disruptive students directed for information or assistance from appropriate school or district school board personnel.
(e) Assist in enforcing school rules on school property, during school-sponsored transportation, and during school-sponsored activities.
(f) Request and receive information as to the disposition of any referrals to the administration for violation of classroom or school rules.
(g) Request and receive immediate assistance in classroom management if a student becomes uncontrollable or in case of emergency.
(h) Request and receive training and other assistance to improve skills in classroom management, violence prevention, conflict resolution, and related areas.
(i) Press charges if there is a reason to believe that a crime has been committed on school property, during school-sponsored transportation, or during school-sponsored activities.
(j) Use reasonable force, according to standards adopted by the State Board of Education, to protect himself or herself or others from injury.
(k) Use corporal punishment according to school board policy and at least the following procedures, if a teacher feels that corporal punishment is necessary:1. The use of corporal punishment shall be approved in principle by the principal before it is used, but approval is not necessary for each specific instance in which it is used. The principal shall prepare guidelines for administering such punishment which identify the types of punishable offenses, the conditions under which the punishment shall be administered, and the specific personnel on the school staff authorized to administer the punishment.
2. A teacher or principal may administer corporal punishment only in the presence of another adult who is informed beforehand, and in the student’s presence, of the reason for the punishment.
3. A teacher or principal who has administered punishment shall, upon request, provide the student’s parent with a written explanation of the reason for the punishment and the name of the other adult who was present.
(2) Teachers and other instructional personnel shall:(a) Set and enforce reasonable classroom rules that treat all students equitably.
(b) Seek professional development to improve classroom management skills when data show that they are not effective in handling minor classroom disruptions.
(c) Maintain an orderly and disciplined classroom with a positive and effective learning environment that maximizes learning and minimizes disruption.
(d) Work with parents and other school personnel to solve discipline problems in their classrooms.
(6)(a) Each school shall establish a placement review committee to determine placement of a student when a teacher withholds consent to the return of a student to the teacher’s class. A school principal must notify each teacher in that school about the availability, the procedures, and the criteria for the placement review committee as outlined in this section.
(b) The principal must report on a quarterly basis to the district school superintendent and district school board each incidence of a teacher’s withholding consent for a removed student to return to the teacher’s class and the disposition of the incident, and the superintendent must annually report these data to the department.
(c) The Commissioner of Education shall annually review each school district’s compliance with this section, and success in achieving orderly classrooms, and shall use all appropriate enforcement actions up to and including the withholding of disbursements from the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund until full compliance is verified.
(d) Placement review committee membership must include at least the following:1. Two teachers, one selected by the school’s faculty and one selected by the teacher who has removed the student.
2. One member from the school’s staff who is selected by the principal.
The teacher who withheld consent to readmitting the student may not serve on the committee. The teacher and the placement review committee must render decisions within 5 days after the removal of the student from the classroom. If the placement review committee’s decision is contrary to the decision of the teacher to withhold consent to the return of the removed student to the teacher’s class, the teacher may appeal the committee’s decision to the district school superintendent.