Seeing your Florida high school student face expulsion can be one of the harder things in life. You don't want your Florida high school student expelled from school in favor of a disciplinary placement in an alternative education program or so-called “boot camp.” Boot camp or reform school isn't your student's ambition, and it isn't your dream for your student, either. High school is a precious time for student academic, physical, mental, social, and emotional development. Trauma in high school, like expulsion and disciplinary placement, can affect the course or trajectory of your student's life. If your Florida high school student faces expulsion and disciplinary placement, arm yourself with the knowledge you need to fight expulsion. And retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team to help you and your student retain your student's traditional Florida high school placement.
How Do Florida High Schools Discipline Students in School?
Florida school discipline laws and regulations encourage Florida high school officials to discipline students in the school before resorting to exclusionary discipline. Under Florida Statute Section 1003.32, teachers have the authority to discipline students in the classroom for violating class conduct rules. The statute expressly states that teachers may “establish and implement consequences, designed to change behavior, for infractions of classroom rules.” In-class discipline is typically the loss of classroom privileges and completing extra assignments. Under the same statute, teachers may also send students to administrators for other in-school disciplines, when students violate the school board's code of student conduct. In-school discipline for those violations may include removal from the regular classroom to an alternative classroom, extra school work, school service, and other consequences serving as a behavioral modification. Section 1003.01 even defines an option of “in-school suspension” that temporarily removes your student from the classroom for no more than ten days while keeping your student in the school. In-school discipline may sound harsh and may challenge your student. But you and your student may also vastly prefer in-school discipline to out-of-school discipline, including expulsion.
How Do Florida Schools Discipline Students Out of School?
Although Florida school discipline laws and regulations encourage Florida high school officials to discipline students in school, those same laws and regulations clearly authorize those officials to provide for out-of-school discipline, including suspension, expulsion, and disciplinary placement. Under Florida Statute Section 1003.32(5), when a teacher removes a student from the classroom for disciplinary reasons, the principal has the authority to “recommend the student for out-of-school suspension or expulsion, as appropriate.” The same statute authorizes the school to prohibit your student from attending school activities on or off campus. Long-term suspensions beyond ten days, expulsion through the remainder of the school year and for up to a year, and disciplinary placement in an alternative education program are out-of-school discipline options. Section 1006.13 and other provisions even provide for zero tolerance of certain acts, particularly having to do with weapons and drugs at school, but also for other crimes and victimization. An expulsion is unquestionably a significant tool in the disciplinary arsenal Florida high school officials have to control and punish student behavior.
What Must My Student Do to Avoid Expulsion?
In general, students must comply with their Florida high school's student code of conduct to avoid expulsion. Florida Statute Section 1006.07 authorizes the school board to adopt a code of student conduct for high school students. The code must include “specific grounds for disciplinary action, including in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, expulsion, and any disciplinary action that may be imposed for the possession or use of alcohol on school property or while attending a school function or for the illegal use, sale, or possession of controlled substances….” Under the same statute, your student's high school code of student conduct must include policies on drugs, firearms, and other weapons in school. It must also include policies on sexual harassment, false reports, and the use of a cell phone in a criminal act. But Florida high school codes of student conduct may and routinely do include many other provisions your student must satisfy. Your student is in a highly regulated environment when on school property or at a school activity. Help your student understand the need to know your student's high school code of student conduct and the need to comply.
Do Florida High Schools Expel Students?
Yes, they do. The above statutory authority expressly grants school disciplinary officials the authority not only to suspend students short term for up to ten days and to suspend them for longer periods through the end of a school year but also to expel students for up to one year. Expulsions happen, especially around guns and drugs, but also for interpersonal violence and threats, property theft or vandalism, sexual assaults and harassment, bullying, hazing, interfering with fire alarms and equipment, and many other reasons. Florida high school disciplinary officials may even expel your student over a series of smaller acts like disrespecting teachers and other school staff members, disobeying the orders and instructions of school officials, and repeated disruption of classes or other school activities. Schools generally pursue behavior modifications and rehabilitative measures first. But don't underestimate the willingness of officials at your student's Florida high school to expel your student. They'll do it if they want to. It's up to you and your student to challenge expulsion when it's unwarranted.
What Happens to Expelled Florida High School Students?
Florida high schools refer expelled students for alternative disciplinary placement. Alternative educational programs outside the traditional high school may also serve pregnant students, students nursing or providing care for their infants, and students whom the traditional high school program does not serve well. But expelled students could, in many cases, just as well consider alternative disciplinary placement to mean boot camp or reform school. Indeed, if your student's misconduct is of a criminal nature warranting delinquency proceedings, then the juvenile judge may order your expelled student into juvenile detention facilities for confinement, where your student would receive alternative education services. Expulsion doesn't mean your student gets to sit at home playing video games. Truancy laws still apply. Under Florida Statute Section 1003.21, your student must attend school until turning the age of sixteen. And if your student has already turned sixteen, your student may well still wish to earn a high school diploma rather than a GED. That means attending an alternative high school.
How Does Florida Send Students to an Alternative School?
Florida high school officials can't just wake up one morning to send your student to an alternative disciplinary school. Florida high school officials must instead follow disciplinary procedures that give you and your student fair notice of the disciplinary charges and an opportunity to challenge those charges at a fair hearing. Florida State Section 1006.07(2)(k) provides that school districts must adopt “policies to be followed for the assignment of violent or disruptive students to an alternative education program….” A Florida appellate court ruling has held that the school district's procedure for assigning a student to an alternative school must meet basic due process. In that case, the school principal had sent the accused student to a disciplinary school without giving the student fair notice and hearing and without allowing the student the option of transferring to another traditional school. That action violated the student's constitutional right to due process. You and your student should get a fair chance to fight the disciplinary charges and preserve your student's traditional high school placement.
Will Florida Expel My Student for Bringing a Gun to School?
Yes, ordinarily. Your student's Florida high school must generally expel your student if your student brings a gun, another weapon, or a gun facsimile to school. But your student's actual disciplinary outcome may depend on the circumstances. Florida Statute Section 1006.07(2)(g) requires Florida high schools to include a policy on weapons on school property or at school activities. Florida Statute Section 1006.13 specifically requires schools to adopt zero-tolerance policies for “[b]ringing a firearm or weapon, as defined in chapter 790, to school, to any school function, or onto any school-sponsored transportation or possessing a firearm at school.” The same statute requires the offending student who brings the gun to school “to be expelled, with or without continuing educational services, from the student's regular school for a period of not less than one full year, and to be referred to the criminal justice or juvenile justice system.” Florida school boards have expelled not just high school students but students in middle school and lower elementary. Expulsion is a strong probability. But your student may have defenses. Get skilled and experienced attorney advisor defense representation.
Will Florida Expel My Student for Bringing Drugs to School?
Like gun violations, Florida high school authorities have clear authority to expel students who bring controlled substances to school. But unlike gun violations, Florida's zero-tolerance statute does not require Florida high schools to automatically expel students who bring drugs to school. Whether your student's school expels your student for bringing drugs to school or instead pursues lesser discipline may first depend on the school district's policy and practice. It may next depend on your student's individual circumstances and the nature of your student's alleged violation, including things like the quantity of the drugs, the type of drug, your student's knowledge of the drugs, and your student's intent with the drugs. Your student's outcome may also depend on how the school discovered the drugs and how you and your student have since then responded. Get qualified defense representation for your student's best outcome.
When Is Florida Not Allowed to Expel My Student?
Florida law and federal law place some limitations on Florida high school authority to expel a student. Florida Statute Section 1003.31, for instance, provides that if the student whom the school seeks to expel “is a student with a disability, the disciplinary action must comply with the procedures set forth in State Board of Education rule.” Federal law and state rules require the high school to conduct a manifestation determination for disabled students before their expulsion. That review may prevent expulsion, depending on the circumstances.
Your student's due process rights are another limitation on your student's Florida high school's authority to expel your student. Under Florida Statute Section 1002.20(4)(b), “Public school students and their parents have the right to written notice of a recommendation of expulsion, including the charges against the student and a statement of the right of the student to due process….” If your student's school goes ahead with an expulsion without first providing those due process rights, you and your student should at least get that notice and hearing. Your student may also get reinstatement pending the hearing, depending on the circumstances.
Will My Student Have a Hearing Before Expulsion?
Yes. The U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment generally requires that the state government provide due process before affecting your student's substantial liberty interests. Florida Statute Section 1002.20(4)(b), cited and quoted just above, makes the same guarantee specifically as to an expulsion hearing. The student code of conduct and disciplinary procedures at your student's school district should detail those procedures. They may include not only written notice to you and your student and a hearing before a district disciplinary committee but also the opportunity to review the school's evidence in advance and other protections. Your retained attorney advisor can confirm and invoke those protective procedures so that you and your student get to fight expulsion.
May My Student Appeal Expulsion?
Likely, yes. Florida school laws and regulations expressly provide for appeals of certain school and disciplinary committee decisions. While those laws and regulations do not specify appeal procedures in expulsion cases, Florida school district procedures routinely provide for appeals of expulsion decisions. The Miami-Dade County School Board's Secondary School Code of Student Conduct, for instance, provides “an appeal conference with a representative from the Division of Educational Opportunity and Access and a hearing before an impartial hearing officer” for “alternative education assignments in excess of ten (10) days and expulsions.” As this example shows, an appeal can take the decision outside of the school itself to district officials for a second, independent review of the expulsion decision. Appeals, though, are not simply a matter of writing a letter. A successful appeal generally requires the skills of an experienced academic administrative attorney advisor.
How Long Do Expulsions or Disciplinary Placements Last?
Florida high school expulsions are often for one full year. Florida Statute Section 1006.07, for example, requires a school to expel a student committing a weapons offense, or threat or false report offense, “for a period of not less than one full year, and to be referred to the criminal justice or juvenile justice system.” But for other violations, you and your retained attorney advisor may succeed in limiting your student's out-of-school time to a shorter suspension. Suspensions or expulsions for the remainder of the school year, when that end is near, may satisfy school officials and may be something you and your student can also accept as in your student's interest, provided that you and your retained attorney advisor can negotiate that shorter suspension or relief at a hearing or on appeal.
Can Florida Return My Student to Disciplinary Placement?
Maybe. Florida Statute Section 1003.32 permits a teacher to resist and deny your student's return from suspension, expulsion, and disciplinary placement. In that case, the statute provides that a placement review committee may overturn the teacher's decision to refuse your student's reentry into the regular classroom. If the placement review committee disagrees with the teacher, then your student may get back into the classroom without a return to disciplinary placement. But the teacher may appeal that decision to the district superintendent. So your student's return to the classroom after an out-of-school suspension isn't a given. You and your retained attorney advisor may need to fight a return to disciplinary placement.
What Is the Downside to Florida Disciplinary Placement?
The downside to Florida high school disciplinary placement is that your student loses the structure, instruction, relationships, co-curricular and extracurricular activities, and other benefits of your student's traditional high school enrollment. Do not underestimate the value to your student's academic, physical, social, and emotional development. High schools tend to integrate academics, sports, arts, recreation, vocational, and social opportunities like no alternative program can or does, certainly not a disciplinary placement. The downside is losing all those rich developmental benefits.
Another downside is replacing the traditional high school's highly structured, integrated, and rich academic and social environment with the often highly unstructured and limited disciplinary placement environment. Alternative education sites may not have an elaborate instructional campus and instead only spare classrooms. Alternative sites may not operate weekdays from 8 to 3 but instead only half days, alternate days, or just evenings. If they do offer regular school hours, then those hours may not be structured into class periods but instead, just long study periods and study halls where instructors help students at many levels and in many subjects all at the same time. Alternative education programs vary widely, but they tend to have much less structure, making for a de-motivating or even distracting and challenging environment for studies.
Does Florida Disciplinary Placement Have Long-Term Effects?
Disciplinary placements can have long-term effects. Alternative education programs may collect violent students, failing students, pregnant and nursing students, and other students who have challenging issues all in one program. Or they segregate student populations into vocational, rehabilitative, and other special programs. But many alternative education programs simply lack the healthy student population and diverse resources that make traditional high schools so successful. Public reports cite critical studies of Florida alternative schools, accusing school districts of funneling disadvantaged and failing students into those alternative schools where they soon drop out, failing not only in school but in life. Alternative schools generally have significantly higher dropout rates and lower academic achievement rates, whether because of their inadequate resources or simply the challenged students whom they serve.
Can Expelled Students Still Attend College?
Expelled students generally need to earn their high school diploma to have a shot at college. An alternative disciplinary placement may help them do so. Or they may earn a GED later on, qualifying them for college or university admission. But high school expulsion says something to college and university admissions officials. Your expelled student may not get into the institution you and your student would prefer. Better to fight expulsion up front than to deal with it later.
What Should I Do If My Child Faces Expulsion?
Your first and best move if your Florida high school student faces expulsion is to retain a skilled and experienced attorney advisor. Your student's attorney advisor can promptly notify the school of the advisor's appearance on your student's behalf. That appearance puts school officials on notice that you and your student are prepared to fight expulsion.
How Does an Attorney Advisor Help with Expulsion?
Your retained attorney advisor can certainly help you and your student fight school expulsion by learning the details of the disciplinary charges, invoking the school's hearing procedures, and helping you and your student challenge the school's evidence while putting forward your student's best case for remaining enrolled. But your attorney advisor can also help you discern a strategic approach that may generate favorable options for early voluntary resolution. In high school discipline cases, it is often not so much about fighting as it is recognizing where your student's interests overlap with the school's interest for a compromise resolution that keeps your student in school while avoiding expulsion and disciplinary placement.
Premier High School Student Defense in Florida
Get the skilled and experienced representation your Florida high school student needs to preserve your student's traditional Florida high school placement. Retain the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team and national education attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento for your student's best possible outcome when facing Florida high school expulsion. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now.
