Case Study: Cocoa High School achieves dramatic reductions in negative behavior with Hero K12

How one school dramatically reduced negative behavior with restorative practices and a paperless referral system

Cocoa High School, a Title 1 combined 7–12 school with a large ESE population in Florida, was struggling with significant discipline issues—fighting, excessive tardies, skipping class, inappropriate language and larceny—while relying on slow paper referral forms. To modernize referrals and improve accountability during the 2016–2017 school year, Cocoa High turned to vendor Hero K12 for a digital solution.

Hero K12 implemented a paperless referral system (their incident manager) and a phased rollout with staff training, made usage mandatory, and paired the tool with restorative practices and social-worker follow-ups including reflective writing and reduced suspension time. The result: 100% staff adoption, instant referrals and better reporting, and dramatic behavior reductions in two months—excessive tardies down 70% (118 → 35), skipping class down 71% (42 → 12), general misconduct down 76% (109 → 26), fighting down 90% (11 → 1) and inappropriate language down 96% (25 → 1)—demonstrating clear efficiency and disciplinary consistency thanks to Hero K12.