Introduction
We all want students to be present for every minute of instructional time. But in most schools, students will sometimes need to leave class for valid reasons. Beyond nature’s necessities, there are other reasons a student might leave class, whether it is to run an important errand for a teacher or get a book from out of a locker. Like with any school policy, the goal isn’t to prevent these occurrences, but to create clear expectations for when and how they’re handled.
There are many benefits of creating a consistent hallway policy:
- No discrepancies between teachers and classrooms. Students know how the system works in every class, and there’s no room for debate or discussion..
- Reduce hallway traffic and risk of misbehavior. Unsupervised hallway areas are one of the biggest “hotspots” for students making bad chioces. By limiting traffic, you reduce the chance of negative behavior.
- Keep the focus on instruction. With a school-wide policy, teachers don’t have to reinvent the wheel and can keep their focus on instruction.
How should we introduce our policies?
Explain to students the rationale behind your hall policies, and how they will help them be safer and more productive.
Here’s a
great resource put together by the Wisconsin PBIS network on how to respond to common student questions about your hallway policies.
Beware When Students Rotate Classes!
Unfortunately, students will sometimes try to intentionally miss instructional time. If your school has a rotating class schedule, these students can take advantage of the fact that they see many different teachers throughout the day. You might be amazed to realize just how detrimental this can be to a student’s learning. For instance, let’s imagine:
A student takes one 5 minute break in each class, and has 6 classes per day.
That’s 30 minutes per day.
That’s 150 minutes per week.
That’s 600 minutes per month.
That’s 5,400 minutes per school year.
That’s right, 2.25 weeks of instruction per school year!
There are many reasons that a student might be abusing hallway privileges, ranging from not feeling engaged to more serious issues at home. But without a clear way to identify these trends, these students can fall through the cracks without receiving attention or intervention.
Here at LiveSchool, we’ve lived this challenge. One of the key ways you can use LiveSchool school-wide is to track and enforce consistent hallway policies.
By the Numbers
If a student takes a five minute hall pass in each of six classes every single day...
They'll miss 2.25 weeks of instruction per school year!
Drafting Hallway Policies
Before customizing your LiveSchool site, there are a few key questions you should answer as a leadership team:
- What types of hallway passes are allowed? Restroom is a given – but what about locker, library, or visiting another teacher?
- For allowed passes, are there specific times of the class period that these are allowed or not allowed?
- How many of each pass type are allowed per day or week?
Once you have established your policies, you should write them up in a basic document or email and also present to your staff. You’re also ready to customize LiveSchool to track your policies!
Ready to Implement?
Once you’ve created your hallway policies, watch the video below to implement them consistently using LiveSchool!
Implement Your Policies with LiveSchool
You can use LiveSchool to track your specific pass types, allow teachers to see how many of each pass type students have taken so far today or this week, and analyze trends over time from a school-wide perspective. It’s all covered in this video. Dig in!
Watch VideoLearn to implement your hallway policies using LiveSchool (6 minutes)
