Since 2003, Ontario, Canada’s high school graduation rates have increased 13% while suspensions and expulsion rates have simultaneously decreased. This article examines relationships between the province’s safe school policy and Student Success/Learning to 18 (SS/L18), a policy designed to increase graduation rates. Analyses of teachers’ perceptions, policy texts, provincial data, and an external evaluation of SS/L18 suggest that efforts to increase graduation rates through SS/L18 may also be helping to reduce suspensions and expulsions—perhaps to a greater extent than recent changes to Ontario’s safe schools policy, including the elimination of zero tolerance and adoption of a progressive discipline approach.
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