Alternatives To Suspension (San Diego)

Suspension stops behavior, but it does not change it. This workshop teaches the difference and gives you the strategies to start changing it. This is a two-day implementation workshop for administrators, deans, MTSS leaders, behavior specialists, counselors, and school leadership teams, designed to leave you with a framework and strategies you can begin using as soon as you return to campus, not a philosophy you have to figure out how to use. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Early bird pricing ends September 18 at 11:59 PM PT. All registrations closes Tuesday, October 20 at 11:59 PM PT. REGISTER WITH PURCHASE ORDER To register with a purchase order, Click Here. COST OF REGISTRATION Every pricing tier is built around one idea: the more members of your team who learn the system together, the stronger the likelihood of faithful implementation. Purchase orders accepted. • TEAM RATE (5 or more people) - $500 per person • GROUP RATE (2-4 people) - $575 per person • EARLY BIRD Individual - $575 per person* • Individual - $650 per person * Early Bird Registration Ends Friday, September 18 at 11:59 pm PT. NEED A HOTEL ROOM? f you need to book a room at the Hilton Garden Inn San Diego Del Mar and would like to receive our Group Rate, please click here. Please remember that the group rate is only available for a limited number of rooms, and the last day to book a room at the group rate is Monday, September 28. WHO SHOULD ATTEND This workshop is for you if you assign consequences, supervise discipline, lead MTSS or behavior support, or coach the teachers who do. Principals, assistant principals, deans, restorative practices coordinators, counselors, social workers, behavior interventionists, in-school suspension teachers, and teacher leaders all belong in the room. SUMMER 2026 WORKSHOP RECAP Across the four workshops in our June 2026 series, individual rooms brought together between 15 and 43 public, charter, and private school systems. Collectively, the series drew educators from more than 20 states. The rooms included principals, assistant principals, deans, superintendents, district leaders, MTSS leaders, behavior specialists, counselors, school psychologists, instructional leaders, and teachers. These are the people who make behavior decisions for their schools.That changes what two days are worth because you are not only learning the framework from us. You are working through it beside people from other districts who are wrestling with the same challenges you are, and you leave with their thinking as well as ours. THE EXPERIENCE BEHIND THE WORKSHOP Kelvin Oliver has trained educators in all 50 states since 2017. He has worked directly with districts in nearly every state. His work spans large urban districts, small rural districts, charter schools, private schools, tribal schools, and state schools for the deaf. Educators have traveled from as far as New Zealand to attend this workshop. He is known for making the complexity of student behavior digestible and for leaving educators with concrete strategies they can use immediately upon returning to their campus. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN THE PROBLEM WITH HOW MOST SCHOOLS HANDLE BEHAVIOR A student's behavior is disrupting the school, so you suspend them for a few days. Problem solved, right? When the suspension is over, the student returns and so does the behavior. What I'm describing is one of the most expensive repetition loops in schools, and almost all educators have lived it. We suspend students, and it feels like we did something, but nothing actually changes. Here is the reason why. The only consequence schools really have is some form of time loss: detention, in-school suspension, or out-of-school suspension. There is no amount of time you can take from a student that, by itself, will change how they behave if the behavior hasn't previously been taught.The only way to change a behavior is to teach the behavior.We would never assume a student learned math just because the class ended; we assess. A quiz, a problem worked out on the whiteboard, just something that shows learning happened. Yet with discipline, we assume a student learned because the consequence ended.A completed consequence is not evidence that a student learned anything. That is the gap traditional discipline approaches never close. The emphasis is on removing the student rather than investing time in teaching the student. This workshop is about closing this gap. HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ACCOUNTABILITY Highly Effective Accountability is the core of everything taught in this workshop. It has three parts, and all three have to be present. Consequences. The only consequence schools really have is loss of time. The real question is not how much time to take but which time loss gives you the best opportunity to work on the behavior. Teaching. Lost time only becomes effective when you invest it back. Whenever you take a student’s time, you need to use that time to teach the behavior you want to see. No teaching, no change. Incentives. An incentive is not a candy bar just because they behaved. The incentive we're focusing on gives the student a reason to work with you instead of against you. It transforms a consequence the student is serving into a consequence the student wants to complete. Consequences without teaching are just punishment. Teaching without a consequence has no structure to hold it in place. Neither one works alone. Highly Effective Accountability is the integration of consequences, teaching, and incentives. That integration is what changes behavior. Accountability changes behavior, not consequences. WHY THE APPROACHES YOU ALREADY USE FALL SHORT ALONE Every school is already running some version of three approaches, and each one is flawed on its own. Traditional Consequences. Punishment reinforces a behavior that has already been taught and learned. It rarely works alone today, because you cannot punish a student into a behavior nobody taught them. That said, there will always be behaviors, especially those related to safety, that still require consequences such as suspension. Consequences are not the enemy but consequences without teaching can be. PBIS. A well-run PBIS structure and reward system get most students on your campus to meet expectations, and it does that job well. Its limits show up in the small percentage of students who repeatedly fail to meet those expectations and who also account for most behavior issues. Recognition and reinforcement alone do not consistently change the behaviors that keep bringing those students back into the referral process. Every campus should implement PBIS, but PBIS alone is not enough to address your most challenging behaviors. Restorative Practices and SEL. These are the approaches designed to work directly on behavior, which is not the primary purpose of the other two. But a circle, a restorative conversation, or a reflection sheet is not the same as teaching. Teaching means naming the specific behavior the student needs, teaching them how to do it, giving them a chance to practice, and then checking whether they actually learned it. Too often, restorative work stops well short of that. When it is also run in isolation, with consequences removed from the process, it can leave students unprepared for a world outside school that is far less forgiving. Each approach holds one piece of the answer, and none holds all three. Highly Effective Accountability combines the consequence of traditional discipline, the teaching of restorative practices, and the incentive philosophy of PBIS. The difference is what it demands of each piece. The consequences you choose have to allow you time and space to work on the behavior. The teaching has to be explicit and verified, not just discussed. The incentive has to give the student a real reason to participate. Highly Effective Accountability is a combination of consequences, teaching, and incentives that work together to hold the student accountable.