Education

Oklahoma lawmakers urged to strengthen classroom discipline

September 17, 2026

Ray Carter

For years, teacher pay has been cited as the chief cause of teacher shortages nationwide. But a recent survey indicates otherwise.

A national teacher survey conducted this year by Rand found that 52 percent of teachers reported that managing student behavior is their top source of job-related stress, which was nearly 20 points higher than both salary and workload.

“Student behavior came in as more of a concern for more teachers than pay or than the hours that they are working,” Lauren Greuel, associate counsel with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), told members of the Oklahoma House Common Education Committee during an interim study.

Unfortunately, federal policy imposed by the Obama and Biden administrations has made classroom management much more difficult and contributed to classroom chaos, driving teachers out of the profession and reducing learning for all students, she noted.

In a Jan. 8, 2014, letter sent to schools nationwide, the Obama administration warned school leaders they could face federal investigations even if they “evenhandedly implement facially neutral policies and practices” regarding discipline that nonetheless result in a disproportionate number of minority students being punished. That meant schools could be sanctioned even when no actual racial discrimination occurred.

A 2015 EdNext poll found nearly 60 percent of teachers disapproved of the Obama administration’s actions, Greuel noted.

The Obama and Biden administrations incentivized schools to instead use Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) that largely eliminated the practice of removing violent and disruptive students from the classroom.

The Obama/Biden administrations’ directive had a dramatic impact on schools nationwide. Schools reduced student suspensions in response, which meant disruptive and even dangerous students remained in the classroom. That had an obvious and significant negative impact on learning for all.

When the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty examined schools that embrace PBIS in that state, they found learning was worse at those schools than at districts that did not employ PBIS, Greuel said.

The Trump administration has begun the process of rolling back the anti-school-discipline Obama/Biden edicts, but many schools around the country continue to comply with the old mandates, including schools in Oklahoma.

Based on a review of school districts’ strategic plans, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty found several Oklahoma districts continue to emphasize “restorative justice” practices, including Tulsa, Norman, Chickasha, Enid, and Bixby—and that list is not exhaustive.

“Oklahoma schools are not immune to this,” Greuel said.

According to a report by Federalism in Action, more than 600 districts across 41 states continue to use “restorative justice” and alternative-discipline policies that typically do not allow for the removal of disruptive students from the classroom, Greuel noted.

In written testimony submitted to members of the House Common Education Committee, Ben Berry, a 20-year teacher and coach who has worked in three Oklahoma school districts during his career, described the impact of lax classroom discipline.

When his daughter was in third grade, Berry noted that she “witnessed her teacher being assaulted by a student with a highly troubling background,” and that on three occasions his daughter and other students “had to be evacuated from the classroom” due to that student’s disruptive behavior.

“This situation continued for most of the school year despite numerous complaints from parents throughout the class,” Berry wrote. “Little action was taken until the student eventually assaulted a police officer after leaving school grounds.”

Berry also noted that many districts and schools “have implemented policies stating that students may not receive a grade lower than 50 percent on an assignment or assessment, regardless of whether the student completed the work.”

“Students quickly learn how to take advantage of these policies by ignoring their schoolwork and using class time to misbehave or disrupt instruction,” he wrote.

And teachers are often prohibited from using even basic discipline methods.

“Many disciplinary measures that teachers once used have been removed or prohibited because they are considered harmful or detrimental to students’ mental or physical well-being,” Berry wrote. “Examples include withholding recess, requiring students to write sentences as a consequence, keeping students after class for a discussion, or requiring students to clean the classroom or school grounds.”

He said the “lack of academic and behavioral accountability” is “one of the most significant barriers to student learning.”

Greuel urged lawmakers to pass a “teachers’ bill of rights” that disallows persistently disruptive or violent students from immediately returning to class. The proposed law would also prohibit school boards from terminating or otherwise retaliating against teachers who remove students from class, enforce classroom rules, report unsafe conditions or disruptive behavior, request assistance for student concerns, or take action to protect the safety of the teacher or others.

She said Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas all have similar teacher-protection laws in place.

Greuel also suggested Oklahoma could follow Indiana’s lead. A law in that state requires schools to publicly report the number of times teachers are assaulted by students each year.

State Rep. Mellissa Provenzano, a Tulsa Democrat who previously served as a school principal, defended the policies Greuel argued have harmed classroom discipline and fueled disruptions and learning loss.

“I struggle to accept the correlation that you’re creating based on my experience in our schools,” Provenzano said.

But state Rep. Rob Hall, a Tulsa Republican who requested the study, argued that Oklahoma must ensure teachers are able to maintain classroom discipline if officials want the state’s poor academic outcomes to improve.

“A well-ordered classroom is a precondition of effective instruction,” Hall said. “It is the foundation upon which all other educational activities are built. Because when chaos reigns in a classroom, both teaching and learning become exponentially more difficult, if not impossible.”