Clear, concise language with specific examples of all behaviors that will result in disciplinary action and the specific punishments that will be administered for infractions of the rules. Clear concise language is essential if the public is to understand and support a discipline code. Brief, clear codes also enable teachers and other school staff who are responsible for enforcement to act swiftly and with authority without having to refer to lengthy legalistic documents. Some discipline codes are up to 100 pages in length, making them unapproachable and too cumbersome to enforce. If school district attorneys believe that a code needs to be lengthy and packed with legalese, there must be an accompanying document that summarizes the code in understandable language.
Codes can also err through lack of specificity, leaving more questions unanswered than resolved.
These vague policies may refer to the responsibilities of students in such general terms that school staff must constantly interpret the vague generalities. These types of codes frequently do not refer to any specific punishments. To provide the needed specificity, a good code must list specific prohibited activities and the punishments that will be administered for each infraction. The Corpus Christi code, while not perfect, strikes a good balance between the need for brevity and the need for specificity. The code has been summarized in a one-page document, which includes most of the information parents, teachers and students would need to know to understand and apply the code.