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at my middle school. Our campus is set up where students have to pass from class to class outside. Obviously when it’s cold, students tend to move to classes more quickly, but for the most part, there is a regular contingent that is tardy to class. We are talking anywhere from a few minutes to up to 10 minutes. We are a PBIS school, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. I am not a real fan, but then I don’t have tardy issues in my own classroom. I set up the expectation students are set and ready to go at the warning bell and deal with students individually if they are late. The problem is other teachers are not as good at classroom management and discipline, so their kids are hanging out in the halls, banging on doors, yelling, screeching as only a middle school girl can do, and generally causing disruptions. We have staff standing by their doors reminding students they need to get to class or they will be tardy, but many of our chronic abusers just give you that “expletive deleted” look and continue to ignore you. When students don’t get into class on time, they have no idea what we are doing for the day, so they become disruptive in class as well. This is a no win situation for those students that are ready and willing to learn. I am hoping some of you might have some insights from your practices that I can share that may be useful to them. For any administrators amongst us, what has worked in your schools? I am especially interested in what you do with the habitual offender.

Our school went away from the "sweep" policy, which was if a student is late they basically lose the right to be in class that day and go to ISS for that period. Now we have After School Detention...if a student is late to class (and the teacher can define what is tardy) we are required to assign them ASD. My tardies dropped essentially 100% after students realized that I would give them ASD for being late.

I"m guessing that ASD doesn't fit under "PBIS". But I had a lot of kids that would just skip class because they'd rather go sit in sweep then come to class. However, they come to class now, because they don't want to be stuck at school for an hour after school.

Thanks for all the great ideas! Like Jennifer stated, it can be a bit of a hassle for parents when students are not able to take the bus home. I think that opening the lines of communication with the parents and ensuring that they understand why their student is in after school detention can help garner the support from home that you need to make the ASD successful. Another option may be to suspend all non-academic activities (sports, student gov't, etc) for habitual offenders. Sandy, you said that some of the other teachers don't have good classroom management and therefore have an extensive problem with tardy students. Has your administration addressed this? It might be a great topic for a teacher workshop. Maureen

Ahhh This is even a problem at the college level albeit that we can implement measured that are not possible in K12. This issue has become more acute as we are now required to keep our doors locked and closed during class as part of security measured passed after a number of high profile incidents on college campuses. To me locking students out is not really a solution. I tend to give short one or two question "starters" that are worth a few points. If you are not there sorry you lost your chance. It works.

My middle school and high school had students transitioning outside as well, and in addition, we too had a policy in my school that we called a "hall sweep." The hall sweep would happen just about every week and the students would never know when it would happen. Most of the time, we would have a "hall sweep" before 1st period or right after lunch due to students lingering the most in the hall during these times. Because our school was rather large with about 1,500 students, there would be at least 1-2 teachers/coaches/administrators at each hall and would take all the students and assign them for before or after school detention. What I believed helped even more, was the teachers would have their doors already locked so that students wouldn't be able to "sneak" into class and avoid the "hall sweep." Maybe talk to your administrators about something like this, it was very helpful for my school.

I thought I should follow up since my last post. I can hardly believe it, but the tardies have been significantly reduced. Our principal came into the year with a plan all students tardy would be immediately “swept” to the front office where they were dealt with immediately. The first tardy you got a warning, 2 -3, lunch detention, 4 – 5 after school detention, 6 – 7, Saturday school, 9 – 9, I don’t recall what, then 10 and above, you got the attention of administration. At the top level there were administrator calls and conferences with parents, in school suspension where you get the opportunity to recapture your lost learning for part of the day and the other part, learning social skills, making good choices etc. I am pleasantly surprised at how well this working. Hats off to our administrators who are out in the hall, every passing period helping us keep kids moving. As teachers, we are at our doors every passing period, and on our plan period, we stay out a few extra minutes and anyone hanging in the halls after the bell are “swept” to the front office to receive their tardy consequences. I had to chuckle the other day when I was at the end of my hallway, a 7th grader was trying to hustle to class and didn’t make it very far. He stopped in the hallway, gave a heavy sigh, turned around and swept himself to the office. I had to shake my head in disbelief, but this new method is working. Students are in their seats ready to work. That’s a first step in the right direction. I forgot to share, we have over 600, 7th and 8th graders on our campus.