Suspensions and bullying reports in New Jersey schools: the timelines that protect you

A short-term suspension is one that lasts from 1 to 10 school days in a row. Before it starts, you get an informal hearing, which means a conversation with a school administrator where you tell your side of what happened. The rule says this hearing must happen even if a staff member saw the whole thing. If you deny the charges, the school must explain its evidence.

Your parents must be told before the end of the school day that the principal decides to suspend you. That notice has to include the specific charges, the facts, and the rule in the code of student conduct you are accused of breaking. The district must also give you schoolwork, in school or out of school, within five school days of the suspension.

A long-term suspension is more than 10 school days in a row. The superintendent's office must send your parents a written notice within two school days. You then have the right to a formal hearing before the district board of education, held no later than 30 calendar days after the suspension begins.

At that hearing you can question witnesses and present your own defense. The school must give you its witness list and statements at least five days before. It must also tell you that you can bring a lawyer and point you to legal help in the community. Ask for the hearing. The rules say you have it.

If the board's decision affects your education, the appeal goes to the New Jersey Commissioner of Education.

New Jersey's Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act sets a clock once bullying is reported. Schools call it HIB, short for harassment, intimidation, and bullying. A staff member who sees it or hears reliable information must tell the principal that same day and put it in writing within two school days. The investigation must start one school day after the verbal report and end within 10 school days of the written report. Within five school days after the results go to the board of education, the district must give parents information about what it found. Parents can then ask for a hearing before the board.

Searches have their own rule, and it came from a New Jersey school. In New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985), a 14-year-old at Piscataway High School had her purse searched after she was caught smoking. The Supreme Court held that school officials need reasonable grounds for a search, not the stricter probable cause police need, and the search must fit the reason for it.