lawprofessors

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 With school expulsions, it can sometimes seem hopeless.  The school may be able to prove a child "did it," and isn't that it?  Not necessarily.  Schools have at least one more hurdle to jump over to expel a child in most cases (excluding the big 5 mandatory expulsion offenses ): proving that other types of correction have been attempted or repeatedly failed and/or the act itself makes the child physically dangerous. Specifically, California Education Code sections   48915 (b) and (e) , require (for non-mandatory expulsion offenses ) the following: [A] decision to expel a pupil for any of those acts shall be based on a  finding of one or both of the following: (1) Other means of correction are not feasible or have repeatedly failed to bring about proper conduct. (2) Due to the nature of the act, the presence of the pupil causes a continuing danger to the physical safety of the...

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 Imagine life is rosy, your son is a 4.0 gpa student, wants to go to college, has a job, a girlfriend and is participating in extracurricular activities.  Then, one sunny afternoon, the phone rings and it is your son's Vice Principal, Mr. Jones, who says that your son is up for expulsion for having sold drugs to some kids on campus. Your heart sinks and your world spins.  Is this a joke?  Are you being punked ?  No. This is real. There is no way your son did this.  The school has to be making it up.  He is a great kid with no discipline issues, and there is nothing in his room, on his computer or on his phone.  You are confident that any school panel, despite the witness statements and evidence against your son (all lies!) will believe you.  You decide you don't need help with the expulsion hearing and proceed to hearing alone.  At the hearing, your son explains that he d...

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 If a student goes through a school expulsion hearing in California and are unsatisfied with the results (e.g. they lose and are expelled), they must act quickly to appeal the expulsion decision. Per California Education Code section 48919 , within 30 days of the decision by the Board of Education, an appeal must be filed with the local County Board of Education.  So, if you are in Sacramento the appeal would be lodged with the Sacramento County Board of Education, Woodland would go to the Yolo County Board of Education, Roseville with the Placer County Board of Education, and so on. The date of the decision for purposes of calculating the thirty day expulsion appeal timeline usually begins the date the Board of Education met and made their recommendation in the student expulsion matter.  If a family is in a District where the Board of Education assigns the expulsion hearing to a panel, the decision is...

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 Last night (2/2/11), the Sacramento County Board of Education approved an application for 5 new charter schools in the Sacramento area.  This will create more choices for our youth to attend school outside the traditional setting.  But, what is a CHARTER school?  Parents want to know. Charter schools are authorized in the California Education Code starting with section 47600  http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=edc&group=47001-48000&file=47600-47604.5  under the "Charter Schools Act of 1992" which states: The purpose outlined by the legislature for such schools is to "[P]rovide opportunities for teachers, parents, pupils, and community members to establish and maintain schools that operate independently from the existing school district structure as a method to accomplish all of the following: (a)  Improve pupil learning. (b)  Increase learning opportuniti...