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This project utilizes secondary data analysis of existing data. Recognizing that the school discipline and juvenile justice experience of immigrants may differ from non-immigrant children, the project explores the role immigration status and border location has on these outcomes.

This study, Evaluation of an Intensive Truancy Reduction Program (ACT) within Communities In Schools, is a within-school, student-level randomized controlled trial evaluation of an intensive truancy reduction program (ACT) through Communities In Schools (CIS), within five schools in a large urban district in the Southwest. CIS has adapted the CIS Core model for case management (Core) with an adaption of a community-based psychiatric rehabilitation treatment model and named the new model ACT.

The three-year longitudinal study, conducted during the 2016/17 - 2018/19 school years, included 2,136 6-8th grade students (1,152 ACT students and 984 Core students). Data was collected including student demographic information, implementation fidelity information, as well as baseline and outcome data related to student attendance, behavior, standardized test scores and on-track to graduate status (when applicable). Fidelity information includes the number of received CIS services by service type and overall total number of services as well as total hours of CIS services provided by student.

Across the United States (U.S.), school districts have grappled with how to create safe community- and achievement-oriented schools and how to ensure the necessary discipline is applied transparently, fairly, and without bias. Two programs that many schools have turned to in order to achieve these goals are Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and Restorative Justice (RJ). PBIS is an evidence-driven schoolwide behavioral management approach that aims to outline clear expectations for students and to cultivate shared norms and practices across classrooms and school spaces. PBIS has become a popular approach in schools and districts: as of 2020; over 19,000 schools in the U.S. have implemented PBIS.

A second program, Restorative Justice (RJ), has grown in popularity in recent years. RJ typically focuses on restorative relationship building between affected parties, peaceful reconciliation, and non-punitive approaches to rectifying harm, using a structured circle discussion format. RJ schools use both community circles, designed to build a safe space for students and staff to share and listen to each other, and restorative circles, designed to share perspectives on and redress a behavioral issue.

Working with a large school district in a mid-Atlantic state, researchers set out to test whether these two programs substitute for or complement each other. In partnership with the school district researchers conducted two separate school-level randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The first RCT (RCT 1) sought to uncover the marginal impact of RJ by adding the program to a set of randomly selected schools that were already implementing PBIS. The second RCT (RCT 2) was designed to discover the impact of introducing both programs together into schools that had neither program at baseline. Researchers conducted student and staff surveys to collect measures of school climate, teacher logs to record program implementation, and researchers also received administrative data from the district on student test scores, teacher and student absences, student disciplinary infractions, and school costs.

There is growing evidence of the effectiveness of each of these programs in isolation. A recent meta-analysis of 32 experimental and quasi-experimental impact studies of PBIS found that PBIS reduced disciplinary exclusions and problem behavior and increased academic achievement. The findings were statistically significant and showed small to medium effect sizes. Individual studies have found that PBIS reduces the use of office disciplinary referrals and other exclusionary disciplinary measures (including the use of in-school and out-of-school suspensions), while improving student behavior and attitudes across school levels. Individual studies show variable--some statistically significant and some null--impacts on academic outcomes.

The empirical evidence on the effect of RJ in U.S. schools is more limited, with little rigorous casual evidence published to date. Based on patterns across rigorous and non-rigorous research, restorative justice is associated with decreases in suspension rates and disciplinary disparities, improved student behavior, and improved school climate and relationships.

Bullying, fighting, and other forms of interpersonal violence occur frequently in elementary schools, and are associated with student distress, poor school functioning, and increases in aggression, delinquency, and other behavior problems. Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) is a holistic, multi-tiered, evidence-based approach for preventing and reducing aggression and other problem behavior in school. However, the majority of PBIS schools struggle with more intensive interventions, which many students who present aggressive and disruptive behaviors need. School mental health (SMH) offers promise for addressing these limitations in PBIS. However, SMH lacks an implementation structure and as a result a student must effectively be at a crisis level to be referred for services. Because PBIS and SMH have operated separately, the impacts of both initiatives have been limited.

To address these limitations, the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) has been developed by leaders from national centers for both initiatives, providing specific guidance on PBIS-SMH interconnection through effective teams, data-based decision making, implementation support for evidence-based practices, and ongoing quality improvement to assure responsiveness to school and student needs. Involving partnerships with school districts and community mental health agencies in two school districts located in South Carolina and Florida, 24 schools implementing PBIS with fidelity were randomly assigned to the three conditions: the ISF, PBIS and SMH, or PBIS alone (8 schools per condition). Data were collected from school records, teacher and student reports, and school implementation teams. The impacts of ISF were compared to the other two conditions on school climate and safety, student exposure to violence, problem behavior and discipline problems, and access to and quality of services.

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

This study evaluated a school-based, wraparound intervention for police- and court-involved youth in four high schools in Florida's School District of Palm Beach County.

The intervention involved a collaboration between the schools, school police, the juvenile court, and several service providers.

The collection contains 1 Stata data file (Data.dta (n=863; 118 variables)) and 1 Stata program file (Syntax.do).

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder's Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV) partnered with educators in 46 middle schools to implement Safe Communities Safe Schools (SCSS). SCSS seeks to prevent and reduce behavioral incidents, address mental and behavioral health concerns, and increase prosocial behavior in the school setting through three core program components: developing a functioning multidisciplinary school team, building capacity around data use, and selecting and implementing evidence-based programs. The study explored research questions in three areas: readiness (whether schools met baseline criteria and experienced changes in readiness over time), implementation (whether the SCSS model was implemented as intended; whether it is feasible, acceptable, and effective when implemented schoolwide), and associated outcomes (effects on school climate, safety, related behavioral and mental health indicators, and academic outcomes). To explore questions in these three areas, CSPV and external evaluators from American Institutes for Research conducted a mixed-methods randomized control trial with a staggered implementation design using qualitative data (open-ended questions on implementation surveys, focus groups) and quantitative data (staff and student school climate data, attendance/truancy rates, and suspension rates, and academic achievement data).

This collection is organized into 12 parts and includes administrative school record data, student and staff climate surveys, and fidelity data. School record data from years 1 and 2 of the study include school-level attendance, truancy, and suspension rates, as well as student-level assessment data. Qualitative focus group data is not currently included in the collection.

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

This study sought to examine any major changes in schools in the past two years as an evaluation of the Safe and Civil Schools Initiative. Students, faculty, and administrators were asked questions on topics including school safety, climate, and the discipline process.

This collection includes 6 SAS data files: "psja_schools.sas7bdat" with 66 variables and 15 cases, "psja_schools_v01.sas7bdat" with 104 variables and 15 cases, "psja_staff.sas7bdat" with 39 variables and 2,921 cases, "psja_staff_v01.sas7bdat" with 202 variables and 2,398 cases, "psja_students.sas7bdat" with 97 variables and 4,382 cases, and "psja_students_v01.sas7bdat" with 332 variables and 4,267 cases. Additionally, the collection includes 1 SAS formats catalog "formats.sas7bcat", and 10 SAS syntax files.

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they there received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except of the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompany readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collections and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

This study consists of a secondary analysis of data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS) to investigate associations between immigration, misbehavior, victimization, disorder, and educational failure (i.e., dropping out). Six research questions that were addressed in this study include: do school social bonds vary across immigration generations? Second, is student violence (i.e., misbehavior and victimization) explained by school social bonds across generations? Third, are student violence and school disorder related to the children immigrants' likelihood of dropping out? Fourth, are strong school social bonds mitigating the likelihood of dropping out for the children of immigrants? Fifth, are immigrant school enclaves associated with increased school social bonds among adolescents, decreased student violence and school disorder, and lower levels of dropping out? Sixth, does the intersection of race, ethnicity, and gender moderate the relationship between student violence and school social bonds for the children of immigrants?

There are no data files available with this study. Only the syntax file used by the researcher is provided.

Discipline in schools is typically disproportionate, reactive and punitive. Evidence-based strategies that have been recently developed focus on shifting schools to a more proactive and positive approach by detecting warning signs and intervening early. This project evaluates the implementation of an evidence-based intervention to improve students' mindsets and feelings of school belonging. This grant-funded project was designed to enhance school capacity to implement a Tier 2 intervention, Student Engagement and Empowerment (SEE), to improve student attendance, behavior, and achievement, while simultaneously evaluating the effects of this intervention. The intervention and research project were individualized to fit existing school operations in the school district. A grant-funded coach supported delivery of SEE at each school for the duration of the 3-year grant. SEE was delivered by trained teachers in the classroom over the course of a seven-session curriculum. The overarching project goal was to scale up and simultaneously evaluate a Tier 2 intervention that could be sustained after completion of the grant.

The originally proposed research procedures consisted of an evaluation of the effects of the SEE program on the outcomes of students at elevated risk for disciplinary action and school dropout. Outcome data was collected for at-risk students in classrooms delivering the SEE program, and a comparison sample of at-risk students in classrooms not delivering the SEE program. Researchers initially hypothesized that students receiving the program would evidence a greater sense of belonging to school, endorse greater growth mindset, have better attendance and fewer suspensions/expulsions and course failure, and have better behavioral outcomes than students in the comparison group.