Lake Hamilton offers second chances
At one time, “zero tolerance” was the go-to policy for such infractions as alcohol or drug-use at school. The more you listen to Steve Anderson, superintendent of the Lake Hamilton School District, talk about his district’s new “Second Chance” program, the more you have to wonder about the wisdom of zero tolerance and its frequent “zero-chance” consequences.
Anderson, who presented the positive results of two years of the Second Chance Program at the Arkansas School Boards Association Annual Conference in December, said he modeled the program after a similar one in Illinois after growing ever-more disturbed about the losses resulting from the immediate expulsion of first-time offenders.
Many times, Anderson said, the guilty student was a good kid who had made a mistake, a mistake that, when paired with the zero-chance policy, often catapulted their lives into a downward spiral. As Anderson explained, students who are expelled too frequently drop out or otherwise disappear from school, and those who do return are often so far behind in their lessons that they quickly grow frustrated and tend to eventually leave school for good as well.
The way “Second Chance” works is basically this: students who have broken a drug or alcohol rule now have a choice – expulsion or the program. If they choose the program, which most do, they agree to an out-of-school suspension for 10 days. After returning to school, they still must meet once a week with a professional counselor in the community, generally in a group setting for drug and alcohol education, commit to follow-up counseling and agree to perform 15 hours of community service. They also must agree to periodic drug testing, and they know that committing a second offense ends their “second chance.”
According to Anderson, the benefits to this program are many. The students and their families win because the teens stay in school, which leads to both immediate and long-term gains. School officials know they are keeping order in the school while also helping a child turn his or her life around instead of placing them on a path to failure. Communities have fewer aimless kids on the streets. And school districts don’t lose out on foundation and other per pupil funding that disappears with each dropout.
For that last reason, Anderson said he had no qualms about picking up the large portion of the tab, which costs about $360 a child (it was $650 per student the first year). Students and their families pay a small percentage of the $360 tab, according to what they can afford, to give them more ownership in the program and its outcomes, so the final bill for the school a lot less than the current $6,023 per student in foundation funding school districts receive, he pointed out.
The results have tickled Anderson. He can point to an 83 percent success rate over the last two years, with 63 of 76 students admitted to the program completing it successfully. What’s more, 11 who would have been expelled and very possibly permanently lost from the school have now graduated.
That’s a true second chance.
Posted by JJT.
