Welcome to the
Student Discipline Web Site
Our national and state
constitutions, together with Court decisions, have affirmed that
children have rights of citizenship. One of these citizenship
rights is for a free public education.
A climate of respect for the rights
of others must be established in each school. Administrators and
teachers have an obligation to maintain a school environment in
which teachers can teach and children can learn without undue
interference. Both children and adults must be free from verbal or
physical threat to their safety. With the Code of Prohibited
Conduct, procedures have been established and published for
responding firmly and fairly if it becomes necessary to administer
disciplinary measures.
Use the menu on the left to access
information relating to district rules, student discipline, and
appeals of student discipline. Many of these documents have been
translated into the languages most frequently spoken by families in
Seattle Public Schools.
| Document |
Description/Availability of
Translations
|
- Basic Rules of
Seattle Public Schools - 2009-2010
|
Annual notice of District
rules. Translations are available in several languages. A copy is
sent with each student in the Start of School packets every
September. |
- Code of Prohibited Conduct
|
The discipline section of the Student Rights
and Responsibilities brochure. Translations are available in
several languages.
|
- Standard Discipline for Exceptional
Misconduct Chart
|
Chart showing how students typically are
disciplined for any given Exceptional Misconduct offense for first
and multiple violations of the same offense. Available in several
languages.
|
- Standard Discipline for District Offenses
Chart
|
Chart showing how students typically are
disciplined for any given District Offense for first and multiple
violations of the same offense. Also available in several
languages.
|
- Notice of Disciplinary Action, Offense
Titles, and Definitions of Terms
|
Translations of the offense titles and
definitions for bilingual families.
|
- Appeal Information and
Procedures
|
The appeal section of the Student Rights and
Responsibilities brochure. Translations are available in several
languages. Additional appeal information is available at the link
below.
|
- Student Rights &
Responsibilities brochure - 2009-2010
|
The full brochure,
including the discipline and appeal information sections (39
pages). Translations are available in several languages.
|
- Returning Students Who Are on Parole or
Probation
|
Information for
families or case managers who wish to return students who have been
in Detention or incarcerated to a SPS school. English version
only.
|
- Several School Board policies related to
student discipline.
|
Links to the School
Board home page and its policies.
|
- Students suspended from the District for
possession of a firearm.
|
Procedure for requesting readmission to
SPS after
expulsion from the District. English only.
|
- Notices of Disciplinary Action
|
Translations of
general NDA's. Slightly different versions exist for Short-term
Suspensions & Long-term Suspensions.
|
Sanctions Used in Student
Discipline
Click on Definitions of Terms for more
information about school-based discipline, short-term suspension,
long-term suspension, expulsion, emergency expulsion, and emergency
exclusion. Translations for these definitions also are available by
selecting "Definitions of Terms" on the left menu.
Appeal Rights:
Parents/guardians and students may
appeal student discipline, including school-based actions,
suspensions, expulsions, emergency expulsions, and emergency
exclusions if they believe any of the following is true
:
- The behavior for which the student
is being disciplined is disputed (happened a different way or
didn't happen at all).
- There is a question about whether
established procedures for disciplining the student for violation
of a school rule were followed.
- It appears that the district's
Standard Discipline Guidelines for District Offenses or for
Exceptional Misconduct may not have been followed.
- There were mitigating circumstances
that the school administrator should have considered before
disciplining the student.
The Code of Prohibited Conduct and
Standard Discipline charts are accessed on the menu on the left of
this page. Additionally, each school provides written notice for
their own school rules not covered in the Code of Prohibited
Conduct.
School-based actions and short-term
suspensions are appealed to the principal of the school your child
attends. Long-term suspensions and expulsions are appealed through
the Discipline Appeals Office. Whatever the case, the appeal
meeting or hearing considers whether the student misbehaved and
whether the school had the right to use a particular discipline,
based on school rules and the District's "Code of Prohibited
Conduct".
School-based
actions must be appealed within two days of the
date of the incident. You must
contact the principal of your child's school for an informal
meeting (Step 1 Grievance) to appeal school-based actions. Even if
you appeal, the school-based disciplinary action may begin
immediately. If you disagree with the result from the Step 1
Grievance, you may appeal for a Step 2 Grievance through the
Student Discipline Appeals Office at 206-252-0820 within two days
of learning about the results of the Step 1 Grievance. A meeting
with a hearing officer will be set up to review the disciplinary
action.
The time line for appealing
short-term suspensions is also two days.
For this you must contact the principal of your child's school for
a "Step 1 Grievance Meeting". Even if you appeal, the short-term
suspension begins immediately. If you disagree with the result from
the Step 1 Grievance, you may appeal for a Step 2 Grievance through
the Student Discipline Appeals Office at 206-252-0820 within two
days of learning about the results of the Step 1 Grievance. A
meeting with a hearing officer will be set up to review evidence
that the student violated the District's Code of Prohibited Conduct
and the school disciplined the student according to Standard
Discipline.
Appeals of Long-term
suspensions and expulsions from school
must be within three days of when the incident occurred.
Contact the Student Discipline Appeals Office directly at
206-252-0820 within three business days of being notified about the
discipline of your child. Weekends and holidays are not counted as
business days. A hearing with a neutral hearing officer will be set
up within three business days. If your child is not also
concurrently emergency expelled from school, the
long-term suspension or expulsion starts three days after the
incident occurred and your child has the right to be in school
until those three days have passed. If you appeal a long-term
suspension or expulsion that does not have a concurrent
emergency expulsion, your child may attend school
pending the results of the appeal hearing. If your child is
emergency expelled as well as long-term suspended or expelled from
school, you have the right to request homework for your child
pending the results of the appeal hearing. Students are not allowed
on school grounds while suspended or expelled, so you will need to
make other arrangements to pick up and return the completed
homework. If after the appeal to a hearing officer you still
disagree with the disciplinary action, you may appeal the decision
of the hearing officer to the Disciplinary Appeals Council.
Directions for doing this will be included in the hearing officer's
decision letter.
Emergency
exclusions may be appealed within ten days. While
not a disciplinary action, but a health or safety exclusion, the
action may be appealed through the Student Discipline Appeals
Office at 206-252-0820 if you believe that the school did not have
good reason to exclude your child for health or safety reasons. The
emergency exclusion continues during the appeal process.
Special Education students who are
long-term suspended, expelled, or have had a sufficient number of
short-term suspensions to total at least 10 days will have a
Manifestation Determination meeting before a hearing can be set up,
to determine whether the student's action was a manifestation of
his/her disability. Parents have the right to attend the MDT
meeting, although the meeting may be held without the parent
present if a reasonable effort has been made to accommodate the
parent's schedule.
Click on Appeal Information for more information
about the student discipline appeal process. Also, you can select
"Appeal Information & Procedures" on the left menu for the
explanation as it is printed in the "Student Rights &
Responsibilities" brochure.