Inter-Office Correspondence

INTER-OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE

Los Angeles Unified School District

to: Mr. Ramon Cortines Date: February 22, 2000

Interim Superintendent

FROM: Hector Madrigal

Director, Pupil Services

SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO BOARD MEMBERS’ CONCERNS REGARDING STUDENT EXPULSIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS

At the January 25th Board meeting, Board members expressed concern regarding the District’s expulsion and reinstatement processes, as well as the District’s efforts to prevent student expulsions. Pursuant to your request, this memo addresses the matters raised by the Board by:

Identifying State and Federal laws and regulations governing student expulsion and reinstatement processes,
Providing statistical data relating to these issues,
Summarizing the District’s student expulsion and reinstatement processes, and
Describing the status of proposed District behavioral intervention plans.

Laws Governing Student Expulsion, Rehabilitation, and Reinstatement

California Education Code Sections 48900 through 48926 prescribe specific grounds, mandates, and procedures relating to student suspension, expulsion, rehabilitation, and reinstatement. Included in these sections are detailed substantive and procedural due process criteria such as deadline, notice, fair hearing, tracking, monitoring, and reporting requirements that must be adhered to by every public school district within the state. State law authorizes governing boards to conduct expulsion hearings directly, but also gives them the option to delegate this responsibility. Given the size of this district, the volume of expulsion cases, and the procedural and legal complexities involved, the LAUSD Board has historically delegated its authority and responsibility to the Pupil Services Branch. Such delegation allows for the following:

· compliance with strict statutory time limits that require staff to schedule multiple and simultaneous expulsion and reinstatement hearings in a systematic manner and on a daily basis;

· direct handling of extremely labor-intensive processes that demand individual attention to each expulsion case;

· consistent adherence to legal and procedural details as necessitated by due process laws and mandates that have been continually amended and greatly expanded over the last few years; and

· accurate tracking, monitoring, and reporting of District-wide data, as required by State law.

It should be noted that, although the Board has delegated the authority and responsibility to process student expulsions and reinstatements to the Pupil Services Branch, State law still requires that final action to expel a student be taken by the Board at a regularly scheduled public meeting.

Statistical Context of Student Expulsions

As demonstrated in the summary table below, the District has averaged approximately 765 expulsion referrals each year for the last five years. Tremendous resources are required to process this high volume of expulsion cases, provide rehabilitative and tracking services to those students who are expelled, and to provide reinstatement reviews for each expelled student, as required by law.

Although processing 765 cases from expulsion referral to reinstatement requires a considerable amount of specialized District resources, it should be noted that these students represent a very small percentage of the District’s total population of approximately 710,000 (approximately one-tenth of one percent). This small percentage would be even smaller were it not for the LAPD Undercover Drug-Buy program that has accounted for approximately 25 percent of all student expulsions during the representative 5-year period.

Academic Year

Expulsion Referrals

Referrals for Firearms

1994-95 / 758 / 63
1995-96 / 798 / 83
1996-97 / 806 / 59
1997-98 / 648 / 36
1998-99 / 817 / 37
5-Year Average / 765.4 / 55.6

Note: In general, the number of expulsion referrals due to firearms has declined over the last five years.

Student Expulsions

Student expulsion is the most severe disciplinary action that a District can take against a student because of misconduct. It is a very emotional issue, as well as one laden with many legal implications. Within the past few years, State law has expanded the grounds for expulsion, as well as the category of mandatory expellable offenses. With the expansion, or addition of each new law, a new set of procedural guidelines and requirements is mandated. These mandates govern every stage of the expulsion process and must be followed by every school district within the State.

Additionally, students referred for expulsion, and their families, have been afforded an increasing number of rights. As a result, families have become more astute and assertive in pursuing their rights, attorneys have become more involved in the process, and legal challenges to expulsions have become more frequent and complex. This has necessitated the assistance of specialized staff and the development of a highly trained staff to explain and implement the many laws and procedures relating to due process, student misconduct, and expulsion. (See attached Los Angeles County Office of Education Publication.) These efforts serve to protect both District and community interests by creating safer schools while, at the same time, effecting compliance with the law.

In the LAUSD, there are very specific guidelines and protocols delineating every stage of the expulsion process at the school, District, and Board levels. (See attached District bulletins with regard to the major student discipline processes.) Also, due to the ever-increasing complexity of expulsion-related issues, school-site officials rely continually and extensively on the expertise of the Student Discipline staff for guidance. The District’s ability to comply with the provisions of the law is evidenced by an almost non-existent expulsion appeal record. During the last decade, there have been no more than thirty requests for expulsion appeals filed with the Los Angeles County Office of Education. Of that number, only one expulsion was overturned.

In fact, although the LAUSD accounts for almost ½ of the Los Angeles County public school enrollment, less than 5% of the expulsion appeals, or even inquiries made to the County, are from LAUSD. (Source: Mr. Phil Kauble, Director of Student Support Services, Los Angeles County of Education. Mr. Kauble is responsible for processing all student expulsion appeals before the Los Angeles County Board of Education.)

Student Reinstatements

Pursuant to California Education Code Section 48926, the District is required to provide an educational placement for any student who is expelled. Additionally, each expelled student must have an individualized rehabilitation plan that outlines the criteria for a successful term of expulsion and rehabilitation. According to California Education Code Sections 48916 and 48917, the Board must reinstate an expelled student upon his or her satisfactory completion of the rehabilitation assignment (reinstatement means official readmission to the expelling district and an end to a student’s expulsion status). Under this law, once the expulsion term has ended, the student must be reinstated unless the Board makes a finding that the student has failed to meet the conditions of his or her rehabilitation plan or continues to pose a danger to campus safety or to other pupils or employees of the district. To effect compliance with these and other legal mandates pertaining to selected at-risk students, the District has created the AB 922 Student Support Unit (AB 922 Unit), which is responsible for the administration of rehabilitative services and the evaluation of students seeking reinstatement. This program is described in detail below.

The Reinstatement Process

Each expulsion is for a certain term, as recommended by the Student Discipline Proceedings Unit, in accordance with State and Federal mandates. By the end of the term of expulsion, the student will be considered for reinstatement. By law, this date may not exceed one calendar year from the date the Board takes action to expel. Once the Board takes action to officially expel a student, the District’s AB 922 Unit staff intensifies their work with that student. This may include providing direct psychosocial and related assistance, or facilitating access to other appropriate health and human services personnel.

Further, during the period of the student’s expulsion, a team member from the AB 922 Unit (i.e., Pupil Services counselor, psychologist, social worker, or nurse) develops a rehabilitation contract in collaboration with the student, the student’s parent(s), and other District staff. AB922 staff then monitor, review, and evaluate those variables that may indicate the student’s satisfactory compliance with his or her contract. In making this evaluation, AB 922 staff members consider reports from teachers, administrators, support personnel, probation officers, and personnel from other community agencies.

Following this intensive review process, AB 922 staff recommend to the Board that a student be reinstated provided that two criteria are met: 1) the student has satisfactorily complied with the terms of his or her rehabilitation contract, and 2) the student does not pose a danger to campus safety or to the safety of others. Only if both of these criteria are met will the AB 922 Unit submit a recommendation to the Board requesting that a student be reinstated from his or her expulsion.

It should be noted that, of the 2,820 students expelled between the 1994-95 and 1998-99 school years, only 30 of them (1.06%) were expelled a second time. This low recidivism rate can be largely attributed to the effectiveness of the District’s AB 922 Intervention Program.

Prevention of Student Expulsions

As we discussed when we met, the District’s Behavior Intervention Task Force was convened in December 1998 in response to concerns expressed by the Board regarding early intervention for students who exhibit behavior problems. This Task Force presented its findings to the Board of Education’s Special Committee of the Whole on November 2, 1999. Interestingly, the Task Force’s findings were closely aligned with Board Member concerns and there is strong agreement regarding the critical need to implement District-wide early intervention processes for at-risk students.

At the November 2nd Board meeting, the Board demonstrated overall support for the findings and recommendations of the Task Force. The Board also directed staff to develop a detailed plan regarding how best to implement the various recommendations found in the Task Force’s report. As a result, since November, District staff have been meeting regularly for the purpose of addressing this Board directive. A plan for the first-phase implementation of the Task Force’s recommendations is scheduled to be presented to the Board of Education’s Instruction Subcommittee on March 9, 2000. Consistent with the Task Force’s findings, the chief objective of this first-phase implementation plan will be to provide early behavior intervention assistance to high-risk students, to prevent their misconduct from escalating to the point where an expulsion recommendation becomes necessary or obligatory.

Thank you for the opportunity to explain the above legal mandates and District disciplinary processes. We will be happy to respond to any specific questions or concerns from either you or individual Board members.

Attachments

c: Ms. Sally Coughlin

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