Suspended in Kansas: the 10-day line, the 72-hour hearing, and a student press law

Kansas compulsory attendance law, K.S.A. 72-3120, covers every child from age 7 until 18 who has not earned a diploma or equivalency credential. A 16- or 17-year-old can leave only through a narrow door: an approved alternative program, a court order, or a parent's written consent given at a final counseling session where the school lays out what leaving will cost. That session is required by statute, not a school's choice.

K.S.A. 72-6114 lists the only grounds for suspension or expulsion in Kansas public schools. They are: willfully breaking a published conduct rule, substantially disrupting the school, endangering others or invading their rights, conduct that would be a felony anywhere or a misdemeanor at school, and disobeying a teacher or officer when that disobedience can reasonably be expected to cause disorder. If the reason you were given does not fit one of those six, that is worth saying at the hearing.

Kansas splits discipline into three sizes. A short-term suspension is up to 10 school days. An extended-term suspension is up to 90 school days. An expulsion is up to 186 school days, which is a full school year and can roll into the next one.

For a short-term suspension, K.S.A. 72-6115 says the student must be told the charges and given a chance to respond, even informally, before being sent home, unless the student is a danger or a serious disruption right then. Either way, written notice must go to the student and parent within 24 hours, and if there was no hearing first, an informal one must happen within 72 hours. Show up: skipping the hearing counts as giving it up.

For an extended suspension or expulsion, the school must send written notice of the charges and set a formal hearing no later than 10 days after the notice. K.S.A. 72-6116 lists what that hearing must include: a lawyer or adviser of your choice, your parents in the room, the full testimony against you, the right to cross-examine witnesses and call your own, and a decision based on substantial evidence. The hearing must be recorded at the district's expense, and there is an appeal. These Kansas rules sit on top of Goss v. Lopez (1975), in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that a public school student facing even a 10-day suspension must get notice of the charges and a chance to tell their side, because public education is a right the state cannot take away without due process.

K.S.A. 72-6147 requires every Kansas school district to adopt a policy against bullying and a plan to address it, including training for staff and students. The statute's definition is broad on purpose: any intentional act, threat, or electronic message severe or persistent enough to create an intimidating environment, by a student, a staff member, or a parent. Cyberbullying by text, game chat, or website is named specifically. The law does not set a statewide deadline for a school to respond, so after a report, ask for the district's own policy; the statute requires one to exist.

Kansas also has the Student Publications Act, K.S.A. 72-7209 through 72-7211. It says the liberty of the press in student publications 'shall be protected' and that material cannot be suppressed only because it is political or controversial. Student editors decide the content. The limits are libel, obscenity, promoting a crime, or a material disruption of school. This is a bigger shield than the federal baseline set in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988), where the Supreme Court let a principal cut articles from a school-sponsored newspaper for reasons tied to legitimate educational concerns. Kansas passed its own act to give students back the ground Hazelwood took.