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.

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.