Disciplinary point system gets ‘amped up’
RUSSELLVILLE — As Alabama students head back to school, there is a new incentive for staying out of trouble.
This school year, school disciplinary problems won’t just affect report cards or extracurricular activities. Under Taylor’s Law, certain disciplinary actions can also delay when some teenagers throughout the state are eligible to get a learner’s permit or driver’s license.
Under Taylor’s Law, disciplinary violations are attached to a point system which determines the number of weeks a student is delayed from taking a learner’s permit or driving test.
Beginning with the school year when a student turns 13, discipline points are tracked and accumulated.
The point system is not new, but it has been amped up.
The new point system assigns one point for each day a student experiences in-school-suspension; two points each day a student has out-of-school suspension; six points for alternative school placement; and 20 points for expulsion.
Each point adds one week to the age at which a student may receive a covered license with a limit being placed at one year.
Not all situations automatically receive points, such as the first three days of in-school suspension during a school year; however, if a student receives a fourth day, then the previous days will contribute to the total points received.
Additionally, two days or fewer of out-of-school suspension do not generate points unless a student receives an additional day later in the school year.
The points can be erased in part or full if additional violations do not occur.
If a student completes one full school year without receiving additional discipline points, previous points are reduced by half.
If a student completes two consecutive school years without receiving additional points, all accumulated points are removed from the student’s school record.
Before a student completes the learner’s permit or driver’s license test, schools are responsible for providing an enrollment form. The updated form has a space where disciplinary points are listed.
Points are automated through the Power Schools digital system.
State school officials support the new system, saying it gives students an extra incentive to not violate behavioral policy.
Elijah Walker, a rising sophomore at Russellville High School, said , however, he was unsure how to feel about disciplinary actions being tied to eligibility to obtain a learner’s permit or driver’s license “I don’t see how disciplinary actions unrelated to driving are related,” he said on Friday after obtaining his learner’s permit at the Department of Motor Vehicle office in Florence.
