Suspended in Alabama: the five-day hearing rule, the bullying form, and who to call

Alabama's compulsory attendance law (the law that says a child must be enrolled somewhere) covers every child from age 6 through age 17. A parent can delay the start by one year by telling the local board in writing that the child will enroll at 7 instead of 6. Public school, private school, church school, or a qualified private tutor all count. Because attendance is required, a school that pushes a student out has to follow rules; it cannot simply say go home and stay there.

The floor for those rules comes from Goss v. Lopez, a 1975 Supreme Court case about Ohio students suspended for up to ten days without any hearing. The Court held that a public school student facing a suspension of ten days or less must get oral or written notice of the charge and, if the student denies it, an explanation of the evidence and a chance to tell his or her side. That conversation can be short and can happen minutes after the incident, but it has to happen, and it should happen before the removal unless the student is a danger to people or property. Longer suspensions and expulsions call for more process, not less.

Every Alabama school system must adopt a written discipline plan, give a copy to every student, and have parents sign a statement that they received it. That signed plan is the document that says what your school can and cannot do, and the board must review it every year. Local boards are allowed to be stricter than the state minimum, which is why a policy in Baldwin County can differ from one in Jefferson County.

For the most serious categories (drugs, alcohol, weapons, physical harm, or a threat of physical harm), Alabama's Safe School and Drug-Free School law does three things. The principal must notify law enforcement. The system must suspend the student from regular classes immediately. And the system must schedule a hearing at the earliest possible date, no later than five school days after the suspension. The law also says the decision to suspend or press charges must take into account whether the student has a disability. A student found to have violated one of those policies cannot return until any criminal charges are resolved and the board's conditions for readmission are met.

A separate Alabama statute requires a one-year expulsion for bringing a firearm to school, on a bus, or to a school event, though the superintendent and board can shorten it case by case. Alabama also still allows corporal punishment (physical punishment such as paddling) when the local board's written policy permits it, so the discipline plan is worth reading for that line too.

Alabama's anti-bullying law is the Jamari Terrell Williams Student Bullying Prevention Act, named for an Alabama student and expanded in 2018. It defines bullying as a continuous pattern of intentional behavior, including cyberbullying and written, electronic, verbal, or physical acts, tied to a characteristic of the student. Since 2018 it covers student-on-student conduct off school property and online, not only on campus and on the bus.

The practical part is the form. A student, or a parent or guardian, files a written complaint on the form the local board authorizes, and the law requires that form to be posted on the board's website and the school's website, kept in every school office, and printed in the student handbook handed out each year. A teacher cannot file it for you; the student or parent has to. The law bars retaliation against anyone who reports, requires each school to run prevention programs such as peer mediation, and makes schools report bullying statistics to the board and the state, which posts them publicly without student names. The act also says it does not limit a student's free speech rights under the U.S. and Alabama constitutions.