Only work if the parents put them to hard labor at home or if they receive zero grades and can not make up the work.

Without these two things.....they consider it a free vacation day!

Neither would be the correct answer as however both have merit. As part of student management, suspensions can be effective given there are alternate consequence in place prior to a suspension being issued. Additionally, when an administrator knows the students in his school, the use of "suspension as vacation" is often not the reality. Students who push the limits of school propriety to the point of suspension are in crisis and in need of services greater than the school is offering, however, that also makes them a potential danger to others and therby meeting the criteria for an appropriate period of suspension (at which time some research should to into the causes of the behavior or how to prevent reoccurring behavior.

Suspension is a tool - only one tool that administrators can use to promote good behavior. All too often, it is the only tool utilized in most schools.

If avoidance is the "purpose" of the misbehavior, the student "learns" that they get what they want by acting out.

Suspensions can be effective, but only for a small group of people and if the parents have a clear idea of how to handle it. Parents must support school discipline efforts and expect students to behave in school and to be there for the purpose of learning what is taught.

The goal is to get students to learn to behave in public situations. parents must be part of the plan. This is difficult with so many parents believing that schools should teach what they have neglected. By then it is usually too late.

A few days a student was killed on a public bus by
two teenage gang members that had been expelled.
I guess the expulsion gave them time to stew about other gang members and give them the opportunity to get a gun and go looking for revenge.

So expulsion even though it may help the bright kids who want to learn can be much more detrimental to the student being expelled and others if there is a revenge factor.
The student on the bus in Chicago was a good student.

How about "Educational Boot Camp"? Instead of sending a kid to the steets to do mischief let's house them, exercise them to get their blood flow going and aggressions out of their emotional state and then teach them. Assign a counselor to interview and understand their needs and desires and teach to them.

The results of your poll tell you more about the population that is likely to receive/access Edutopia than it does about the efficacy of suspensions.

Most of the above comments assume that the student wants to stay home from school. As a retired teacher and principal, I know that students, K-8, want to be at school with their friends.... but there are rules of behavior at school. If those rules are not followed, interrupting other students with fighting for example, then a suspension is appropriate.... but only for the rest of the day. It allows the student to regain his/her composure and return the next day to start again. Suspension for this is logical and understood by the student...and all of the other students.

It would be preferable that time well spent, before the fact, could alleviate the need for both alternatives to suspensions/expulsions and suspensions/expulsions themselves. As a Conflict Resolution Mediator in local schools, I have all too often been told by an administrator the "story" is that "A" did something to "B" that warrants suspension/expulsion, period.

During a subsequent mediation, when that alternative was allowed, the "real story" was that "A" had complained several times to school staff and family about "B" being troublesome ("...pushed me", "...took my pencil", "...cut in line", ...made faces at me, etc.), with no effective attention paid. "B" was a good kid; "B" was on the team; "B" had nice folks; why attempt to deal with "B" when "A" appeared to be the only one complaining? So says the staff.

Finally, and with the family's endorsement to "take care of yourself", "A" takes the matter of dealing with "B" into his own hands buy doing something that technically warrants suspension/expulsion from school. The time that staff didn't have earlier is now at hand and has grown immensely. The mediation proceeds to get the two parties to discuss what happened, some alternative courses of action in the future, and to agree to steps they will take to avoid future dilemmas both generally between themselves and with other parties.

The staff easily expended four or five times the resources, after the fact, as they would have in dealing with the situation straight away. Also, a university study revealed that the rate suspensions/expulsions for Black males in local K-12 schools was nearly five times higher than White males for similar offenses, while they represented less than 4% of the population. Finally, according to the State Department of Education, the social cost of not educating a student has been measured to be seven times more expensive than the cost of all resources used to educate one.

Mediation, as an alternative to suspensions/expulsions, is a worthwhile effort to keep children in school, off of social and criminal justice roles, and to pursue fairness for all parties while resolving a dispute. However, it would be preferable that time well spent, before the fact, could alleviate the need for both suspensions/expulsions and their alternatives, such as mediation.

In-school workshops which require parental and student participation during the school day. Kids enjoy days off, and parents will be unhappy about missing work.