A recent Hartford Advocate story reported on the shockingly high number of school suspensions in the Hartford, Connecticut school district (19 percent). In the report, Marc Porter-McGee of New Haven-based Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now argues that one of the reasons for the high number of out-of-school suspensions is a breakdown in discipline: “Discipline isn’t something that comes when something goes wrong. It comes through every (contact) an adult has with that student, the expectations that are set and consistency with which they’re set.”

Certainly one of the most effective sources of loving but firm discipline in a student’s life is the family. In the latest Mapping America, federal survey data reveals that one of the most protective factors against school suspensions and expulsions is an intact married family. Another protective factor is frequent religious attendance.

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