Policies & Practices

It is only possible for BDEA to support your goal of earning a high school diploma if you regularly attend school.  Accordingly, all of our students will be held accountable to the following attendance policy that outlines supports and expectations for Consistent Daily Classroom Attendance. 

BDEA Attendance Policy Link 

The following absences will be excused by providing Program Leader with appropriate documentation: 

• Illness documented with doctor’s note

• Death in family 

• Suspension from school (S) 

• Counseling intervention center (CIC) 

• Court appearance with documentation 

• SST/Counseling in-house (CP)

• Religious holidays (CP) with note from home

The following absences will not be excused: 

• Cutting from class 

• Family vacations 

• Childcare/babysitting 

• Conflict with work 

• Illness of family member

• Missing more than half a class period

Possible attendance interventions for students are:

• Modified schedule, including fewer academic classes and/or fewer overall classes

• Home visits

• Needed supports (such as counseling, housing, food, childcare) provided or identified

• Regular advisor calls/texts to student

• Weekly goal setting, progress report, and/or check-ins

• Revised transportation plan 

• Progress 

• Peer mentoring 

• Regular updates to parent/guardian

Our BDEA community agreements are tiered interventions created to help support all community members to meet our whole school goal to build a consistent, unified, anti-racist, inclusive community that stimulates greater student agency, engagement, and academic achievement.

BDEA’s community agreements are applicable while at school, traveling to and from school, and while on BDEA sponsored events and field trips. These agreements are not intended to cover or list all consequences and procedures as described in the BPS Code of Conduct, nor does it supersede the BPS Code of conduct. Students and Parents/Guardians should refer to Code of Conduct for detailed explanations of consequences.

BDEA Community Agreement and BDEA Code of Conduct with BDEA restorative interventions: Link 

The entire BPS community works hard every day to ensure students accelerate their academic achievement, and the safety and well-being of our students is a top priority. Bullying affects a student’s ability to focus on learning and to succeed in the classroom and beyond. We are engaged in proactive, innovative, and educationally sound strategies to prevent bullying.

To help our efforts, we have established a Safe Space and Bullying Prevention Hotline: 617-592-2378 (call or text), staffed 24/7 by trained counselors.

While we strongly encourage you and your child to report instances of bullying to administrators and staff at school, we also understand that families, and students in particular, may feel more comfortable calling the hotline in some instances. While it is essential that all reported instances are treated with the utmost seriousness, we also believe that proactive measures are critical to prevention.

In addition to the hotline, the BPS leadership team has worked collaboratively with Safety Services, Cyber Safety Campaign, and Education Development Center to actively develop a variety of educational initiatives. These proactive activities include professional development for school personnel, workshops for parents, classroom and school-wide bullying prevention education, and resources for school personnel and parents. 

Staff Bullying Prevention Professional Development

The district requires annual bullying prevention and intervention training for all school staff, including lunch monitors, bus drivers, teachers, administrators and all other itinerant staff as well as on-going professional development. The professional development requires that each school have at least 2 staff trained as Bullying Intervention Specialists. The training includes (i) developmentally appropriate strategies to prevent bullying incidents; (ii) developmentally appropriate strategies for immediate, effective interventions to stop bullying incidents; (iii) information regarding the complex interaction and power differential that can take place between and among a perpetrator, victim and witnesses to the bullying; (iv) research findings on bullying, including information about specific categories of students who have been shown to be particularly at risk for bullying in the school environment; (v) information on the incidence and nature of cyber-bullying; and (vi) internet safety issues as they relate to cyber-bullying.