Expulsion Procedures

I had the honor of attending a seminar this morning given at T.A.S. by a guy who his an expulsion examiner for the Indianapolis Public School system. This proved to be a very interesting seminar, and throughout the course of this blog entry I would like to look at some of the things covered in the seminar. One of the things I found very interesting is that there are many steps to the process. One cannot just be expelled because the principle does not what that particular child in the school. The students are given due process.

The first step in the expulsion process is the act itself from the student. Each school board sets what they believe are student misconduct and/or substantial disobedience. These are guidelines set by the school board which principles must follow.

The student is then suspended by the school. Another interesting fact I learned during this seminar is that by state law, schools can only suspend a child for a maximum of ten days. IPS's standard for suspension is only five days. Once the child is suspended, the Superintendent/Designee reviews the information and decides if an expulsion examiner needs to be assigned. If an expulsion examiner is assigned, the examiner than sends home a notice of the right to an expulsion meeting to the parents/guardians. However, if a Superintendent/Designee does not believe the child's actions are expellable, they have the opportunity to deny the requests of an examiner and the child returns to school.

If the parents accept the notice of the expulsion meeting, the meeting is then scheduled. However, if the parent.guardian does not reply to the notice, the student is expelled. However, the student then has an opportunity to file an appeal to the Superintendent/School Board to make a defense for their case.

If at the expulsion meeting, the principle does not show up, the expulsion file is dropped and the child is able to return to school.

At the expulsion meeting, the expulsion examiner hears the case from the principle and the student. If the examiner does not believe the principle has enough evidence to say the child is guilty of a particular misconduct, the examiner can determine that the child can go back to school. The child may have an attorney or other advocate present at the meeting, but they cannot speak in defense of the child. However, they can ask for the meeting to be stopped so that they can leave the meeting and discuss what has been said and what the child should say.

After each case has been made, the examiner makes his/her decision.

This is the gist of what occurs at an expulsion meeting. The principle has to have the proper evidence to convince the examiner that expulsion is necessary. This particular examiner discussed with though that IPS's expulsion rate has dropped by 66% this school year. This is due to the different alternative schools that have been created to meet the needs of those who need help. The Superintendent of a school has the right to refer the child to an alternative program instead of being expelled.

Another piece of information I found interesting is that principles cannot set their own "zero" tolerance rules. The only state mandated zero tolerance law deals with firearms.

References: Handouts received at seminar at T.A.S. on March 26, 2008