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An eighth grader in Manchester is sent home after a fight in the cafeteria and told not to come back for a week. New Hampshire statute sets what happens next, and the school's handbook has to follow it. The law covers every student from age 6 until 18, since that is the compulsory attendance range (the ages when a parent must send a child to school). It also sets limits that every district's discipline policy has to follow.
Suspension: 10 days, then a hearing
A suspension is a period when a student is kept out of school as discipline. In New Hampshire, the superintendent or a person the superintendent names in writing can suspend a student for up to 10 school days in a row. The reason has to be behavior that harms the health, safety, or welfare of others, or repeated, willful breaking of reasonable school rules that the district's smaller consequences did not fix.
Going past 10 days is harder. The school board or its designee can add up to 10 more days only after a hearing, and only for theft, destruction, violence, certain repeated bullying, or having a gun, BB gun, or paintball gun. The person who holds that hearing cannot be the one who made the first suspension. If someone other than the school board orders the extra days, you can appeal in writing to the board within 10 days.
The U.S. Supreme Court set the national floor in Goss v. Lopez (1975): even for a suspension of 10 days or less, a student must be told the charges and get a chance to tell their side.
While you are out, and expulsion
Your school must give you assignments during any suspension, and it cannot lower your grade just because you missed class. After more than 20 days of suspension in one school year, the district must provide alternative education so you can still move up a grade. After more than 10 days in a year, it must make an intervention plan when you return.
Expulsion means removal from school until the school board reinstates you. Only the local school board can expel, and only for serious acts listed in the law, such as an assault that would be a felony for an adult. Before it decides, the board must weigh your age, your record, whether you have a disability, and whether something less would work. A parent can appeal an expulsion to the New Hampshire State Board of Education at any time while it lasts.
After a bullying report
New Hampshire's Pupil Safety and Violence Prevention law requires every district to have a written policy against bullying and cyberbullying, including off-campus conduct that disrupts school. Once a report is made, the school has deadlines. Both families must be notified within 48 hours, unless the superintendent grants a written waiver of up to 5 school days. The principal or a designee must start investigating within 5 school days. Families must hear about the school's response within 10 school days of the investigation ending.
The law also bans retaliation against anyone who reports in good faith.
What to do and where to look
Every district must post its discipline policy on its website and in the student handbook. Read it, then ask for the hearing if a suspension goes past 10 days. You are allowed to. Put any appeal in writing and keep a copy.
If a bullying report goes quiet, write down the date you reported it and ask the principal, in writing, where the investigation stands. We could not confirm a separate state complaint process for bullying, so for anything the district does not fix, ask the New Hampshire Department of Education which office handles it.
Tandaan ito
- A New Hampshire suspension can last up to 10 school days, and more than that requires a hearing and a serious reason.
- You get assignments while suspended, and the school cannot lower your grade just for the missed class time.
- Only the school board can expel, and a parent can appeal to the State Board of Education.
- After a bullying report: families notified within 48 hours, investigation started within 5 school days.
Mga pinagmulan
- New Hampshire General Court: RSA 193:13, Suspension and expulsion of pupils (bubukas sa bagong tab)
- New Hampshire General Court: RSA 193-F:4, Pupil safety and violence prevention (bubukas sa bagong tab)
- New Hampshire General Court: RSA 193:1, Compulsory attendance by pupil (bubukas sa bagong tab)
- Legal Information Institute: Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975) (bubukas sa bagong tab)
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