State Superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley calling for more assertive discipline on disruptive students

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - Louisiana State Superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley is pushing for more assertive discipline in schools.

As the 2024-25 school year approaches, Dr. Brumley sent out a letter to school system leaders calling for more order in classrooms; he’s also pushing for teachers to have more disciplinary authority over “disruptive students.”

Click here to read the full letter.

“Campus and classroom disruptions are hindering the teaching profession and student learning,” Dr. Brumley wrote in the letter. “As we approach a new school year, please recommit to assertive discipline action to create safe and orderly environments where teaching and learning can flourish. Students and teachers deserve peaceful schools.”

The superintendent’s Let Teachers Teach group recently dedicated an entire section of its recent recommendations to the topics of student behavior and discipline.

In the letter sent to school districts, Dr. Brumley calls attention to a couple of acts that were part of the 2024 Legislative Session that go into effect Aug. 1. They are:

Act 400: Student Discipline and Teacher Rights
- This law amends existing law and the Teacher Bill of Rights providing that teachers shall have disruptive students removed from their classrooms. Further, it codifies that leaders may not discriminate or retaliate against a teacher seeking to provide an orderly classroom. This act further amends current law to require a conference between the teacher or other appropriate school employee and the student’s parents prior to a student being admitted to the same classroom after a third removal due to disruptive behavior.
Act 337: Mandatory Expulsion in Grades 6-12
- This law adds expulsion requirements for conditions involving knives and drugs. Furthermore, the Act provides, notwithstanding other policies, 6-12th graders suspended a third time within the same school year for any offense, excluding those related to dress code or tardiness, shall be recommended for expulsion.

“These laws address behavior complications educators and students faced in previous years and aim to improve the school experience,” wrote Dr. Brumley. “Affording teachers more disciplinary authority over disruptive students will maintain order in classrooms. Further, students will benefit as distractions will be lessened and academic outcomes strengthened.”