BATON ROUGE - State Superintendent Cade Brumley is behind a new school policy to limit classroom disruptions.

Members of the "Let Teachers Teach" work group of the Louisiana Department of Education went to a meeting of the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Tuesday to voice their approval.

The LTT task force came up with a list of suggestions for those who shape Louisiana's education policies. The workgroup said that cutting red tape and eliminating disruptions are keys to success in the classroom.

Earlier this year, the workgroup released 18 recommendations for school districts, administrators and legislators. Topics ranged from their own professional development to ensuring that all students had opportunities to learn.

One of the teachers who voiced her support for Brumley and his recommendations was Regina Beard, a 5th and 6th grade teacher in the Zachary School District.

"It is wonderful to have a state superintendent who listens. Who just sits in a room with us and says hey what's going on? And so that's really where this stemmed from is the teachers advisory council meeting," Beard said.

One area the teachers really wanted more guidelines on was cracking down on disruptions in the classroom and stricter discipline for students.

They say students with behavior issues should be placed at alternative sites where their needs can be addressed by specialists, and that districts need stronger ways to address chronic absenteeism.

Also, if teachers are to play a major role in the school accountability system, administrators need to trust them.

"When something is a rule and we're allowed to interpret it in our own way, that makes things a little bit more subjective and so to make something more concrete or law based, makes it a whole lot easier," Middle school math teacher Holly Wilder said.

Advocates for student's mental health sent a letter to Brumley on Monday asking the superintendent to focus more on addressing students needs over added discipline.

At the state board of elementary and secondary education meeting on Tuesday, several teachers supported Brumley's new policy recommendations.

Those included increasing professional autonomy for educators already deemed effective -- and streamlining training that the state requires annually.

"After so many years and so much work that we've put into it, the new mandates and things that are going on, takes so much of our time that we aren't able to really focus on what the students need because there's so much other red tape and things that we're having to go through," Beard said.

The board is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to accept the recommendations.