Many schools form disciplinary and honor committees to resolve behavior-based student issues. Some schools choose to include students on these committees, if mission-appropriate, to ensure students feel heard and are involved in the process.
A question about how different schools structure their committees recently surfaced on the ISM e-lists for Academic Deans.
Many administrators shared great insight about how their schools create and manage their committees. We want to share them here. We hope they spark some ideas you can use at your school.
- “We have a pool of juniors and seniors that we use for honor councils and discipline boards. Four students are put on each committee. They are asked to vote guilty or not guilty, and are also asked to suggest punishment levels. Students are then asked to leave the room while faculty make final decisions.”
- “We have a combination of five adults, three students, and one Chair or facilitator on our Discipline Committee. The Chair leads the meeting but does not vote, while the other eight are involved in deliberating and voting on a consequence. We find the student voices to be really important and helpful. We have students apply for this as a leadership position.”
- “We have a Conduct Review Board that is composed of elected 11th and 12th-grade students. For each hearing, we have two upper school administrators present, along with a hearing officer, three faculty, and four of our elected students. The deliberating and voting body is made up of faculty and students. Collectively they recommend a consequence to the Upper School Principal, which the Principal can accept or amend.”
- “We have a student- and faculty-run honor board that oversees consequences for academic integrity issues. Representatives are peer-nominated. Juniors serve a two-year term, so we always have seasoned and new voices. Hearings are comprised of two teachers and two representatives from 10th through 12th grades. One administrator oversees the board, but does not vote or participate in deliberation.”
- “We have five students who sit on our Honor Council. When an upper school student has a possible honor code violation, they go in front of the council (made up of the student government senators from each grade and the Vice President of the student government). I oversee the hearings and then the council makes a recommendation to me if a student is guilty or not guilty, and what the punishment should be. I technically can override or change any decision they make, but I rarely do, as they do a really good job and take it very seriously.”
- “We have an Honor Committee made up of elected juniors and seniors. They have an application process, are voted on by the student body, and are vetted by the full faculty. As the Dean, I run and oversee the investigations. At the beginning of each meeting, I provide a written report, detailing the investigation. The Honor Committee focuses on helping students understand the choices they made, why they made them, and ways to make sure they do not repeat their mistakes. After hearing the case, the committee recommends a consequence to me. We have a faculty advisor who sits in on the meeting with the seven Honor Committee members, the student in question, and that student's advisor.”
- “Our Disciplinary Committee is made up of a Chair, three faculty members, a student rep from each grade who is elected by the grade level, and me. The Class Dean of the student under review also attends the meeting. We have found student input to be consistently and compellingly valuable to the process. The wisdom, balance, perspective, and insight are inspiring. We also find that there is great campus-wide buy-in for the discipline process, in part thanks to the student involvement. As others have outlined, the committee seeks avenues to growth, learning, and restitution where possible. We make recommendations to the Head of School, who has the final say.”
We hope these insights help you develop some ideas about how to incorporate student voices into your school’s disciplinary process.
Additional ISM resources for members:
I&P Vol. 34 No. 5 Student Discipline, Policies, and Risks
I&P Vol. 39 No.6 The Wise Use of Your School’s Disciplinary Data
