Resource Page: School Discipline

Resource Type: Back-to-School Resources
Focus Area: school discipline, students with disabilities

Education is a fundamental right in Pennsylvania. Students have important legal rights in the school discipline context, including the right to due process and the right to be free from unlawful discrimination. Schools must follow specific legal requirements set forth in state law and must uphold the rights of students when creating rules, enforcing rules, and imposing discipline.

School climates are shaped in large part by the rules schools adopt and enforce which determine whether students can access their education or are excluded from the classroom. The use of discriminatory and subjective language in school discipline policies fuels racial, sex-based, and disability-related disparities in school exclusion and, in some cases, may rise to the level of creating hostile environments for LGBTQ+ students, multilingual learners, immigrant students, students with disabilities, and students who hold more than one of these identities.

ELC-PA offers several resources and tools to help families, students and child-serving professionals understand schools’ obligations, assert students’ rights and challenge illegal, harmful disciplinary practices, as well as advocate for fair school rules that protect children from discrimination.

• The fact sheet breaks down key rights, processes and protections around student suspensions in Pennsylvania’s public schools, including important tips for families.
• The Expulsions in Pennsylvania fact sheet explains what an expulsion is under Pennsylvania law, how the process works, and key protections for students and families.
• The Suspension & Expulsion Toolkit [Spanish] offers concrete strategies and legal insights for parents navigating schools’ efforts to suspend or expel students.
• The Self-Advocacy Tool: Suspension Expungement Request (Parent) offers parents, guardians, people acting in place of a parent/guardian, and educational decision-makers this tool to request suspension expungement on a student’s behalf.
• Self-Advocacy Tool: Request for Suspension Expungement and Education Records Correction (Eligible Student)
• Preventing Suspension and Expulsion in Preschool Settings [Spanish]
• Your Child’s Right to Be Free from Discrimination in Preschool
• OCDEL’s Resources for Promoting Inclusion & Reducing Expulsion and Suspension

Resources for Students with Disabilities in the School Discipline context:

• Preparing for a Manifestation Determination Review [NEW!] [Spanish]
• Alternative Education for Students with Disabilities
• Self-Advocacy Tool: Preparing for a Manifestation Determination [NEW!]
• Self-Advocacy Tool: Request for Mediation to Resolve Special Education Disputes
• Self-Advocacy Tool: Request for Due Process to Resolve Special Education Disputes

 

 

 

 

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