California School Discipline Policy: Suspension, Expulsion, and Due Process

California’s school discipline rules limit when a student can be suspended or expelled, require schools to try less severe responses first for most behaviors, and give students formal due process rights that grow stronger as the proposed punishment gets more serious. The authority comes from the Education Code, with additional federal protections layered on for students who have an IEP or a Section 504 plan. Knowing which rules apply to your situation is the difference between accepting a suspension that may not comply with the law and pushing back effectively.

What a Student Can Be Suspended or Expelled For

A principal or superintendent can only suspend a student, or recommend expulsion, if the student committed one of the acts specifically listed in Education Code section 48900.¹ The main categories are:

Causing, attempting, or threatening physical injury, or using force except in self-defense
Possessing, selling, or furnishing a firearm, knife, explosive, or other dangerous object
Possessing, using, selling, or being under the influence of drugs or alcohol
Stealing, committing robbery or extortion, or receiving stolen property
Deliberately damaging school or private property
Harassment, threats, intimidation, bullying, or sexual harassment
Disrupting school activities or willfully defying staff, with significant restrictions covered below

These rules reach beyond the classroom. They apply on school grounds, while traveling to or from school, during lunch (on or off campus), and at any school-sponsored event wherever it happens.¹

When Expulsion Is Required Versus Optional

The law splits serious offenses into two tiers. For the most severe acts, expulsion is essentially automatic. The principal must immediately suspend and recommend expulsion, and the school board must then expel. These zero-tolerance offenses are possessing, selling, or furnishing a firearm (verified by a school employee); brandishing a knife at another person; selling a controlled substance; committing or attempting sexual assault or sexual battery; and possessing an explosive. A student expelled for one of these offenses must be referred to an alternative program that is not housed at their previous school or at any comprehensive middle, junior high, or senior high school.²

A second tier includes causing serious physical injury (except in self-defense), possessing a dangerous object, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, robbery or extortion, and assaulting a school employee. The principal must recommend expulsion for these unless they decide the circumstances don’t warrant it or that an alternative response would work. Even then, the board can only order expulsion after finding that other interventions aren’t feasible or have repeatedly failed, or that the student’s continued presence poses a physical danger.²

Schools Must Try Alternatives First

For anything short of the serious offenses listed above (physical injury, weapons, drugs, explosives, or robbery), or a situation where the student’s presence poses a danger, the school must try other means of correction before suspending.³ The statute lists specific alternatives schools should consider:

A conference with school staff, the student, and the parent or guardian
Referral to a counselor, psychologist, or social worker
Intervention teams that assess behavior and build individualized plans
A psychoeducational assessment, including evaluation for an IEP or 504 plan
Anger management or social skills programs
Restorative justice programs
Tiered positive behavior support on campus
After-school programs addressing specific behavioral issues

This is where many families don’t realize they have leverage. If a school jumps straight to suspension for a non-serious first offense without documenting that it tried alternatives, the suspension may not comply with the law.³

What Discipline Can Actually Look Like

Teacher Removal From Class

A teacher can remove a student from their classroom for the day of the incident and the following day for any 48900 offense.⁴ The teacher has to report the removal to the principal right away and request a parent-teacher conference as soon as possible. During the removal, the student can’t be placed in another regular class scheduled at the same time, and can’t return to that teacher’s class without both the teacher and principal agreeing.

In-School (Supervised) Suspension

Instead of sending the student home, the principal can assign them to a supervised suspension classroom on campus for the full suspension period. This option is available only if the student doesn’t pose an immediate danger and expulsion proceedings haven’t been initiated.⁵ The student is kept separate from other students but must have access to counseling and must receive all the assignments and tests they would otherwise miss. The parent must be notified in person, by email, or by phone when the assignment begins, and in writing if it lasts longer than one class period.

Out-of-School Suspension

Out-of-school suspension removes the student from campus and all school activities. A single suspension cannot exceed five consecutive school days.⁶ Across a full school year, a student can’t be suspended for more than 20 school days total. That cap rises to 30 if the student transfers to a continuation school or opportunity program.⁷

Expulsion

Expulsion removes a student from every school in the district. Only the district’s governing board can order it, and only after a formal hearing. It goes on the student’s permanent academic record and can affect college applications and other opportunities.

Limits on Suspending for Disruption or Defiance

California has steadily narrowed the ability to suspend students for non-violent behavior like talking back or refusing to follow instructions. The rules now break down by grade level:

Kindergarten through grade 5: no suspensions for disruption or defiance. This ban is permanent.
Grades 6 through 8: also no suspensions for disruption or defiance, though this provision is set to expire July 1, 2029.
All grades K through 12: no student can be recommended for expulsion based solely on disruption or defiance.

These limits apply only to the disruption and defiance category. A student at any grade can still face suspension for other listed offenses.¹

Your Due Process Rights at Each Step

The level of procedural protection scales with the severity of the proposed discipline. A short suspension triggers a brief informal process. An expulsion triggers something closer to a trial.

Informal Conference Before Suspension

Before any suspension, the principal or a designee must hold an informal conference with the student, and when possible with the staff member who reported the behavior. The student must be told the reason for the proposed suspension, what alternative corrections were already tried, and the evidence against them, and must get a chance to respond.⁶

Emergency Exception

If the principal determines a student poses a clear and present danger to the life, safety, or health of students or staff, the school can suspend immediately without a conference. The student and parent still have the right to a conference, and it must happen within two school days.⁶

Formal Expulsion Hearing

When expulsion is on the table, the process gets much more formal. The school must give written notice at least 10 calendar days before the hearing. The notice has to include the date and location, the specific facts and charges, a copy of the relevant discipline rules, and a description of the student’s rights at the hearing. The hearing itself must take place within 30 school days of the date the principal determined the student committed the offense, and the student can request one postponement of up to 30 calendar days.⁸

At the hearing, the student has the right to appear in person, be represented by an attorney or a non-attorney adviser familiar with the case, inspect all documents the school plans to use, confront and question all witnesses, and present their own witnesses and evidence.⁸ The governing board must make a final decision within 10 school days after the hearing ends. If it votes to expel, the student or parent can appeal to the county board of education.

Extra Protections for Students With IEPs or 504 Plans

Federal law adds a separate layer of protection for students on an Individualized Education Program or a Section 504 plan. These students can still be disciplined, but hard limits apply before the school can go too far.

The 10-Day Threshold

School officials can remove a student with a disability from their current placement for up to 10 school days, to the same extent they would remove any other student for the same behavior.⁹ Once removals exceed 10 cumulative school days in a year and amount to a change in placement, the school must hold a Manifestation Determination Review (MDR) within 10 school days of the decision to change placement.

The Manifestation Determination Review

The MDR brings parents together with relevant members of the IEP team to answer two questions. Was the behavior caused by, or directly and substantially related to, the student’s disability? And was the behavior a direct result of the school’s failure to follow the student’s IEP? If the answer to either is yes, the behavior is a manifestation of the disability, and the student generally cannot be expelled or subjected to a long-term placement change. The school must instead conduct a functional behavioral assessment and develop or revise a behavioral intervention plan.⁹

Services Continue During Removal

Even when the behavior is not a manifestation, the school can’t simply cut the student off from education. A student with a disability removed for more than 10 school days must continue to receive educational services that let them participate in the general curriculum, make progress on their IEP goals, and receive behavioral intervention services designed to prevent the behavior from happening again. The IEP team determines the appropriate interim setting.⁹

There are narrow exceptions. Even when the behavior is a manifestation, school officials can unilaterally move the student to an interim alternative setting for up to 45 school days if the student brought a weapon to school, possessed or sold drugs, or inflicted serious bodily injury on another person.

Searches of Students and Their Belongings

The Fourth Amendment applies to searches by school officials, but the standard is lower than what police need on the street. School administrators don’t need a warrant or probable cause. A search is legal if it is reasonable at its inception and reasonable in scope.¹⁰

“Reasonable at its inception” means there must be a moderate chance the search will turn up evidence that the student broke a law or school rule. The scope of the search then has to match the seriousness of the suspected violation. An administrator who suspects a student has a stolen phone in a backpack can search the backpack, but that same suspicion wouldn’t justify a highly invasive physical search. The Supreme Court has said the intrusiveness of a search must be proportional to the danger involved and to the age and sex of the student.¹⁰ If a search felt extreme compared with what the school was looking for, that is worth raising with an attorney, because evidence from an unreasonable search can be challenged in the discipline process.

Getting Back In After Expulsion

Expulsion is not necessarily permanent. When a board orders expulsion, it must also create a rehabilitation plan. The plan can include academic tutoring, counseling, community service, job training, special education assessments, and periodic check-ins.¹¹

The board also sets a date for a readmission review. For most offenses, that date can’t be later than the last day of the semester after the semester in which the expulsion occurred. For the mandatory expulsion offenses (firearms, brandishing a knife, selling drugs, sexual assault, explosives), the review is set one year from the expulsion, though the board can set an earlier date case by case.¹¹ At the review, the board must readmit the student unless it finds the student hasn’t met the conditions of the rehabilitation plan or still poses a safety risk. If readmission is denied, the student stays in the alternative program or is placed in another program such as a county community school. The district must explain the readmission process in writing to the student and parent when the expulsion order is entered.

An expulsion goes on the student’s permanent academic record and can surface during college admissions or professional licensing. California law does allow expungement in certain circumstances. If a student is placed on a suspended expulsion (essentially probation, where the board suspends enforcement and allows the student to remain enrolled under conditions), the board may order the expulsion records expunged when it readmits the student. Individual districts may have their own policies for expunging records in other situations, so ask the district directly about its process.

1
California Legislative Information. California Education Code 48900 – Suspension or Expulsion
2
California Legislative Information. California Education Code 48915
3
California Legislative Information. California Education Code 48900.5
4
California Legislative Information. California Education Code 48910
5
California Legislative Information. California Education Code 48911.1
6
California Legislative Information. California Education Code 48911
7
California Legislative Information. California Education Code 48903
8
California Legislative Information. California Education Code 48918
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 1415 – Procedural Safeguards
10
Legal Information Institute. Fourth Amendment – School Searches
11
California Legislative Information. California Education Code 48916