Student Discipline

In ELC’s groundbreaking case, P.H. v. Board of Education of Bergenfield, the NJ State Board of Education held that students expelled from school are entitled to an alternative education program until age 20, and that students suffer irreparable harm when their education is disrupted. 

ELC’s advocacy efforts contributed to New Jersey’s adoption of statewide discipline regulations in 2005, which continue to protect students’ due process rights, emphasizing use of prevention and intervention before school removal, requiring provision of educational services within five days of removal from school, and placing restrictions on the use of expulsion as punishment. Additional resources on student codes of conduct and student suspension, expulsion and due process can be found on the New Jersey Department of Education’s website.

On a national level, ELC participates in the Dignity in Schools Campaign, a coalition of groups advocating for an end to school pushout; alternatives to zero tolerance, punishment and removal; the right of every child to receive a quality education and to be treated with dignity and fairness; and halting the “school to prison pipeline.”