Hundreds of North Texas students were sent to disciplinary alternative schools this school year because they were caught vaping — an offense that requires strict punishment under a new state law.
More than one-fifth of students assigned to such campuses in eight Dallas County districts were there because of e-cigarettes, according to discipline records analyzed by The Dallas Morning News.
The state mandate raises questions among education advocates — and even the legislator who pushed for the law addressing vaping. Some are worried that time spent in alternative school can derail students’ learning. Public health officials are concerned about the idea of disciplining children who likely need help.
“You can’t punish your way out of an addiction issue,” said Charlie Gagen, the American Lung Association’s Director of Advocacy for Texas. “We’d really like to see more resources for youth education and cessation and leave the punishment aspect for those retailers” who sell products to minors.
The News requested data covering the first five months of the academic year that detailed how many students were sent to Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs, or DAEP, because of vaping.
More than one in 10 Dallas ISD students sent to alternative schools as of Feb. 1 were removed from their home campuses because of e-cigarettes. The percentages are more striking in districts such as Duncanville and Mesquite, where around 40% of alternative school placements were for vaping.
Students are generally sent to these alternative schools for serious offenses, such as making terroristic threats, selling drugs or assaulting an employee. Now schools across the state have information campaigns reminding students: VAPE = DAEP.
Some DAEP campuses were pushed to capacity, which meant children were routed to in-school suspension instead.
More than one in 10 high school students in Texas reported using e-cigarettes in the past 30 days in 2021, according to statewide survey data. Nearly 6% of middle schoolers did so.
Dallas County reported its first vaping-related death — a teenager — in 2020.
It’s challenging to respond to the influx of e-cigarette use, school officials have said.
Such devices may look like conventional cigarettes. Others resemble pens, USB sticks or highlighters. It’s also difficult to discern whether an e-cigarette is loaded with nicotine or THC, a compound in the cannabis plant, which makes it a more serious issue.
Lawmakers established the discipline mandate in response to the striking rise in e-cigarette use among minors.
The bill’s sponsor questions how it’s played out.
Rep. Ed Thompson, R-Pearland, hoped to give schools flexibility over how they handle students caught vaping. He said he was inspired to take the issue on after hearing about many teenagers getting routed to Juvenile Justice Alternative Education — a more severe disciplinary school — because of e-cigarettes.
His bill was amended during the legislative process to include the strict DAEP mandate. Thompson is not returning to the Legislature in 2025, but he thinks lawmakers will revisit vaping discipline rules then.
“I want there to be flexibility for the schools,” he said. “My intent was never to tie anyone’s hands.”
Health officials concerns
Some worry about the long-term impact of DAEP placements on students’ emotional state. What about their grades? Mental health?
Dr. Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, professor of pediatrics in adolescent medicine at Stanford University, said the data stemming from Texas schools’ crackdown on vaping should be studied.
“I do have concerns,” said Halpern-Felsher, founder and executive director of Tobacco Prevention Toolkit.
Preventing teens from using e-cigarettes in the first place should be Texas’ priority, public health officials say. Several programs — such as CATCH My Breath or Truth Initiative — promote lessons on vaping education.
“Not all students understand that there’s nicotine or cannabis — drugs — in these devices,” Halpern-Felsher said. “They’re still thinking that it’s just flavored water.”
For those who have already started vaping, advocates advise, the state must do more to help teenagers quit.
“Offering cessation services sounds like the right thing to do for kids who are addicted to nicotine. Disciplining them and putting them into alternative schools might be overkill,” said Dr. Steven Kelder, a UTHealth Houston School of Public Health professor. “Although, yes, the students need to account for their actions, I’m sure most or all of them didn’t plan on getting addicted.”
Patchwork approach
Despite the new law, districts approach punishment for vaping in a patchwork way.
A Dallas high schooler caught for the first time with a nicotine vape faces a 20-day placement in alternative school, for example.
If that student completes a Substance Abuse Intervention Program, the punishment is reduced to five days. DISD parents also must attend a half-day orientation for the shortened term. The district offers these sessions on Saturdays.
Both parents and students need to know about the dangers of vaping, said Keisha Crowder Davis, the district’s executive director of student services and support.
In recent years, DISD overhauled its approach to exclusionary discipline, which takes students out of class and disproportionately affects students of color. Still, district officials decided not to pursue a way around the mandatory DAEP placement for e-cigarettes.
“We think giving our kids the assistance — and the families the assistance — they need would benefit us more in the long run than just saying, ‘Oh, we’re not going to do it,’ ” Crowder Davis said.
However, other schools are opting out of the vaping law. These districts are part of the state’s “District of Innovation” system that allows them to skirt certain rules.
Houston, for example, built a District of Innovation plan specifying it can handle vaping at a student’s home campus, through counseling or other measures. In Coppell, school trustees decided over the summer to exempt the district from following the vaping law using its District of Innovation power.
Coppell school board members chafed against the restrictive nature of the mandate, saying they needed wiggle room to work with families. While they said students must understand they can’t vape at school, trustees questioned whether a first offense warranted a stint in a disciplinary school.
Alternative school classrooms in some districts have filled up because of the law. When that happens, the new rules call for students to be shuffled to in-school suspension instead, where they’re often monitored by a supervisor rather than getting direct lessons from a teacher.
That was the case in Richardson ISD earlier this year.
The district saw 108 DAEP placements for vaping as of Feb. 1. There were 365 total placements, for all offenses. That’s roughly 30 more students than the same time period last year.
As of January, punishment for RISD students caught with a nicotine vape was reduced from 30 days to 10 days upon completion of a mandatory nicotine education course. Those caught with THC vapes still get 35 days.
RISD officials said they made the change both to alleviate capacity issues and differentiate between the seriousness of THC versus nicotine e-cigarettes.
Students caught with a vape take a course on the dangers of addiction.
“At the heart of it all, we have to follow the law,” RISD’s counseling director Summer Martin said. “But we are all about making sure we intervene and educate our students.”
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
