Case Study: Riverside-Brookfield High School halves tardies and cuts suspensions by 42% with Hero K12

How a Chicago High School used simple strategies and community-donated incentives to decrease tardies and suspensions

Riverside-Brookfield High School faced chronic tardiness and limited reach of its positive behavior program—students walk or bike to school so arrivals were inconsistent, and a raffle-based "Bulldog Buck" system only engaged about 10% of students. To address this, the school partnered with Hero K12 and adopted Hero K12’s attendance and positive behavior recognition tools to better track arrivals and reward positive conduct.

Using Hero K12, RBHS implemented a single-entry scan point and a clear warning/consequence model for tardies, and re-aligned its Character Counts tenets into Hero to award daily positive points. Weekly "Hero Exchange" incentives (funded by community donations) and a predictable point system broadened participation and motivation; tardies fell from 13.6 to 6.5 per period per day in one semester and first-semester suspensions dropped 42%, while far more students now receive regular recognition.

Riverside-Brookfield High School

David Mannon

Assistant Principal for Student Affairs