You may have heard about the new school discipline guidelines issued by the federal government last month (see Holder, Duncan announce national guidelines on school discipline from The Washington Post).

I didn’t really notice it at the time, but apparently there were a number of issues related to parent involvement discussed in the guidelines.

Learning First discusses them at length today in their post, Strengthening Home, School & Community Partnership: Improving Discipline Policies in American Schools.

Here’s an excerpt:

The guidance package outlines three guiding principles of reform and related action steps that states and districts can consider as they undertake local reform efforts. Several of those action steps speak directly to the critical role of parents as partners in the discipline process, including the needs for:

Regular communication between parents and educators.
Parent involvement in school climate based teams.
Parent and teacher involvement in developing school discipline procedures, codes of conduct, and positive support roles