Moving From Detention Slips to Accountability/Support Scripts

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When students conflict with school rules or each other, educators often reach for the “detention slip”—a punitive document that can fuel criminalizing narratives about youth. Writing Detention Slips or Accountability/Support Scripts? challenges this approach, examining the harm inflicted by language that criminalizes young people, especially those already marginalized. Participants will learn how to shift from punitive forms and disciplinary notes to scripts that center accountability, support, and student growth. By reimagining these routine documents, educators can rewrite classroom stories with liberation, empathy, and relationship-building at the forefront.

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Key Focus Areas

Identifying Punitive Language
- Understand how words and tone in disciplinary forms or incident reports can frame students as “criminal” or “problematic,” deepening inequities.
Accountability vs. Punishment
- Explore strategies to highlight shared responsibility, harm repair, and emotional support when documenting conflicts or disruptions.
Rewriting Forms & Processes
- Gain practical tools for designing “support scripts” and rethinking official documentation that values transparency, student agency, and mutual respect.

Who Should Attend?

K–12 Educators & School Counselors
Seeking to replace detention slips, behavioral referrals, or “behavior logs” with restorative, supportive documentation approaches.
Administrators & Discipline Teams
Committed to dismantling carceral logics in school policy, ensuring official paperwork reflects transformative rather than punitive frameworks.
Special Education & Behavior Specialists
Looking to co-create narratives that acknowledge student needs, underlying issues, and collaborative next steps, rather than stigmatize.
Nonprofit & Community Youth Program Staff
Interested in applying similar practices to accountability forms, incident reports, or progress notes in youth programs.

Learning Objectives

Spot Criminalizing Language
- Hone skills to detect subtle wording that frames students as “bad” or “delinquent,” particularly impacting marginalized youth.
Design Supportive Scripts
- Explore writing techniques and prompts that cultivate empathy, encourage responsibility, and outline positive paths forward for all parties involved.
Implement Restorative Documentation
- Develop a blueprint for integrating more humane, growth-oriented forms into day-to-day disciplinary or accountability processes.

Why It Matters

When standard forms and logs rely on punitive language, they often reinforce stereotypes—especially for Black, Brown, disabled, or queer students—and fail to address root causes or healing. Shifting to accountability/support scripts frames conflicts and infractions as opportunities for learning and restoration. This shift doesn’t mean condoning harm but insists that the written record remains centered on repairing relationships, acknowledging needs, and upholding each student’s dignity and potential.

Is This Workshop For You?

Frustrated by repeated conflicts or incidents in your classroom with little improvement after detentions or suspensions?
We’ll show how adjusting your documentation can lay groundwork for genuine accountability and prevention.
Seeing how “official records” disproportionately impact students of certain racial or social identities?
Learn to design forms that reduce bias, involve student voice, and honor multiple perspectives on what happened.
Unsure how to hold students accountable without labeling or alienating them?
Discover how supportive language fosters reflection, empathy, and collaborative solutions.
Seeking consistent documentation practices that align with restorative, trauma-informed values?
We’ll provide frameworks and sample scripts that guide you in rewriting discipline logs, incident reports, and more.

If these concerns resonate, “Writing Detention Slips or Accountability/Support Scripts?” will help you root everyday classroom documentation in empathy, equity, and liberation.