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No Educator Left Behind:
Student Discipline


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No Educator Left Behind is a series providing answers from the U.S. Department of Education to questions about the federal No Child Left Behind Act and how it will affect educators. If you have a question about No Child Left Behind, send an e-mail to Ellen Delisio, and we will submit your question to the Department of Education.

QUESTION:

How does the No Child Left Behind Act help teachers with student discipline?

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION:

Teachers deserve our thanks for making their classrooms safe and orderly environments in which to learn, sometimes in trying circumstances. NCLB supports them by ensuring that educators can take reasonable actions to maintain order and discipline without the fear of litigation. The law also limits educators' financial liability when they act on behalf of the school in disciplining students or maintaining classroom order.

The U.S. Department of Education is supporting discipline in the classroom in other ways as well. The department's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools supports character education programs to help develop good students and good citizens. Funding for character education tripled in the first three years of the Bush administration. And the president has proposed funding for a teacher incentive fund to encourage the very best teachers to serve in the most challenging communities

Read previous questions and answers in our No Educator Left Behind archive.