Suspended in Illinois: the 10-day cap, the review you can ask for, and the laws behind it

Illinois's compulsory attendance law covers children from age 6 to 17, unless they have already graduated from high school.

On discipline, the School Code lets a principal, assistant principal, or dean suspend a student for 'gross disobedience or misconduct' for no more than 10 school days. The only exception in the statute is misconduct on a school bus, where a longer suspension is allowed for safety reasons. A student suspended out of school for more than 3 days must be offered support services during the suspension, and the school has to give the chance to make up work for credit.

An expulsion, which means removal from the school for a set period, can last up to 2 calendar years.

Any suspension must be reported immediately to the parents or guardians, with a full statement of the reasons and a notice of their right to a review. If the parents ask, the school board or a hearing officer it appoints must review the suspension, and the parents may appear and discuss it. Ask for the review. The statute says you are entitled to it.

Expulsion has a stricter path. It can happen only after the parents or guardians have been asked, by registered or certified mail, to come to a meeting of the board or with a hearing officer to discuss the student's behavior. At that meeting the board must state the reasons and the date the expulsion takes effect.

These Illinois rules sit on top of a federal floor set by Goss v. Lopez (1975), where the U.S. Supreme Court held that a public school student facing a suspension of 10 days or less must at least be told the charges and, if the student denies them, given the evidence and a chance to tell their side. Illinois's written-notice and review rights go further than that minimum.

Illinois defines bullying in its School Code as any severe or pervasive act, in person or online, directed at a student that causes fear of harm, hurts health, interferes with school, or has similar effects. Every public school, charter school, and non-religious private school must have a bullying prevention policy on file with the Illinois State Board of Education.

Two other Illinois laws are worth knowing by name. The Speech Rights of Student Journalists Act gives a student journalist the right to decide the news, opinion, and feature content of school-sponsored media, with no prior restraint, except in limited situations the Act lists. And the School Code's dress code section says a uniform or dress code policy may not apply to hairstyles historically tied to race or ethnicity, including braids, locks, and twists, or to religious hairstyles and facial hair.