A Practical Guide to the Law in Relation to School Exclusions - Second Edition

A school exclusion is a sanction of last resort that can adversely impact a pupil’s life outcomes for many years after the event. The law relating to school exclusions is a complex tangle of public and regulatory law, anti-discrimination and human rights, statutory guidance, and (in relation to independent schools) principles of commercial contract and tort. It can be very difficult to know where to start, whether challenging a decision to exclude or defending one.

This book offers a practical guide to the law, and will serve as a useful source of reference for pupils and their parents, head teachers, governing boards of schools, local authorities and practitioners in this surprisingly complex and multidisciplinary area.

This second edition has been updated four years since the first. It considers an abundance of recent Upper Tribunal judgments on disability discrimination in schools, as well as the wider regulatory and public law framework, post-pandemic, with the law set out as it stands in October 2024.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter One - School Discipline

Chapter Two - The Decision to Permanently Exclude: Maintained Schools, Pupil Referral Units and Academies

Chapter Three - The Statutory Scheme for Review of a Permanent Exclusion by the Governing Board and Independent Review Panel

Chapter Four - Judicial Review and Exclusions

Chapter Five - Independent Schools

Chapter Six - Discrimination

Appendix - Organisations Providing Support to Parents of Excluded School Pupils