Rights: Suspension

Yes. A teacher may suspend students from class for the day of suspension and the following day. As soon as possible, the teacher shall ask the parent or guardian of the pupil to attend a parent-teacher conference regarding the suspension [EC 48910]. The adminstration can not deny your right to suspend.

The right of teachers to send students to the office for willful defiance remains intact. Section 48910, permits student suspensions from class by teachers for any of the acts enumerated in EC 48900, including willful defiance.

No. The pupil shall not be returned to the class from which he or she was suspended, during the period of the suspension, without the concurrence of the teacher of the class and the principal. A pupil suspended from a class shall not be placed in another regular class during the period of suspension [EC 48910].

The teacher of record is responsible for completing the referral.

The teacher may utilize distric communication tools like ParentSquare, Schoology, phone, email, or a current communication. An attempt fufills the teacher’s duty to “ask the parent or guardian of the pupil to attend a parent-teacher conference regarding the suspension”. There is no parent conference requirement. There is not expectation to complete communication during your school day. The “As soon as possible” clause may be fulfilled after school.

No. The adminstration has the right to suspend a student from the school site. Suspensions are recorded on the California School Dashboard. This indicator focuses on the number of students who have been suspended for at least one full day during the school year and counts a student as suspended only once, regardless of how many times they were suspended or for how many days. Note: These are suspensions from a school site enacted by an administrator, not a suspension from the classroom.

Commencing with the 2024–25 school year, all of the following shall apply to recess provided by a public elementary school [EDC 49056]:

A public elementary school pupil shall not be denied recess by a member of the school’s staff unless the pupil’s participation poses an immediate threat to the physical safety of the pupil or to the physical safety of one or more of the pupil’s peers.

“Recess” means a period of time during the schoolday, separate and distinct from physical education courses and meal times, but may follow or precede physical education courses or meal times, when pupils are given supervised and unstructured time.

School staff members are encouraged to use other means of correction, such as those specified in subdivision (b) of Section 48900.5.

“The teacher shall provide all assignments and tests that the pupil will miss while suspended. If no classroom work is assigned, the person supervising the suspension classroom shall assign schoolwork.” [EC 48911.1.c4].

Assignments made available on a Learning Management System qualify as an assignment.

If a classroom teacher fails or is unwilling to provide any particular work, the Intervention Center Teacher (ICT) shall assign schoolwork. Education Code 49066 states, “the grade given to each pupil shall be the grade determined by the teacher of the course”.
This means, the teacher would grade the assigned work of the ICT, if a classroom teacher fails or is unwilling to provide any particular work. The teacher of record would have to accept and grade accordingly.