In the world of school administration, there is a hard truth: If it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen.
When I first became an Assistant Principal, I dreaded the “He Said/She Said” game. A teacher would send a 4th grader to my office for being “disrespectful.” The student would claim they “didn’t do anything.” The parent would call, upset that their child was being targeted.
I would look at the referral, and all it said was: “Student was rude and defiant.”
That isn’t documentation. That is an opinion. And you cannot fix a behavior if you can’t even define it.
If we are going to assign consequences—or more importantly, if we are going to get a student the help they need through a Behavior Plan—we need data, not vibes.
Here is how I teach my staff to write referrals that stop the arguments and start the solutions.
The “Camera Test”
The biggest mistake I see on referrals is documenting feelings instead of behaviors.
We tend to write things like “Student was aggressive” or “Student was defiant.” The problem is, “aggressive” is subjective. A parent can argue all day that their child isn’t aggressive. They can’t argue against a specific action.
I tell my teachers to use the Camera Test: Can a video camera see it?
- A camera cannot see “rude.” It can see “rolling eyes.”
- A camera cannot see “defiant.” It can see “refused to sit down after three prompts.”
Stop writing adjectives. Start writing verbs. Describe the action so clearly that a parent reading the report can visualize the exact scene.
Don’t Be Afraid to Quote the Words
We are often too polite in our documentation. We write: “Student used inappropriate language toward a peer.”
That is too vague. Did they say “stupid,” or did they drop a major curse word? The severity of the consequence depends on the severity of the language.
I give my staff permission to write the exact words.
- Weak: “Student cussed at me.”
- Strong: “Student looked at me and stated, ‘I hate this class and I hate you.'”
When a parent comes in claiming their child is an angel, and I show them the referral with the specific, quoted language, the energy in the room shifts. It stops the minimizing. We aren’t guessing what happened; we are reading the transcript.
Show Your Work (The Intervention Chain)
A referral should never be the first step (unless it is a safety issue).
When a parent reads a referral, their first question is usually: “Well, what did the teacher do to help him?”
A bulletproof referral lists the interventions before the behavior escalated. Don’t just list the explosion. List the fuse.
“At 10:00 AM, Student began tapping pencil loudly. I gave a verbal warning. At 10:05 AM, Student threw pencil. I moved Student to a safe seat. At 10:10 AM, Student flipped desk. I called for administration.”
This shows a timeline. It proves that the teacher tried to de-escalate and that the student continued to struggle. It shows we aren’t just kicking kids out because we’re annoyed; we are asking for help because our interventions didn’t work.
The Takeaway
Documentation feels like “extra work” when you are in the middle of a chaotic classroom. But it is the only way we can move forward.
Good documentation protects the teacher from false accusations. But more importantly, it helps the student. We can’t build a behavior plan based on “he’s mean.” We can build a plan based on “he flips desks when asked to do math.”
Don’t write what you felt. Write what you saw.
Documentation isn’t just for kids. You also need to protect yourself with adults using the ‘As We Discussed’ Email Strategy.