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Expelled but not forgotten The disciplinary process aims to simultaneously punish students and help them get to the root of their troubles Wednesday, December 26, 2001 By Mary Niederberger, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Banished. Removed. Forgotten. That's often the perception when a student is expelled. But the reality is nearly all students expelled from South suburban schools eventually return to classrooms, and while they are gone, the district keeps close tabs on them.
State law makes districts responsible after 30 days for providing students under age 17 with alternative education during the rest of their expulsion if parents haven't assumed that task.
"There is that perception that if you are expelled it is permanent and that the school district is done with you," Baldwin-Whitehall Superintendent Charles Faust said. "There is a general feeling that if you are expelled you will never return. But it's not true."
The state school code defines an expulsion as any removal exceeding 10 days. Administrators may suspend students for up to 10 days for disciplinary infractions. But longer exclusions can be rendered only by the school board after a full hearing.
Expulsions can be permanent but rarely are. "For that to happen, the child would have to commit a really excessive offense involving weapons or dealing drugs or being a repetitive offender," Clairton Superintendent Peter Zonca said.
School officials said most expulsions last from one nine-week grading period to one year depending on the offense's severity and the offender's discipline record.
Grounds for expulsion vary by district, though the school code requires that students with weapons violations be expelled for up to one year unless the district superintendent recommends less time.
Most superintendents said that, besides weapons violations, expulsions would be automatic for selling drugs, threatening staff, students, or the entire school community, or involvement in serious physical altercations with staff members or other students in which multiple injuries occur. Repeat offenders of less serious rules may be expelled if they don't reform.
Some districts have adopted zero-tolerance or other disciplinary codes under which some infractions are referred automatically for board hearings. In Bethel Park and Baldwin-Whitehall, drug and alcohol incidents are sent directly to the board for expulsion hearings. But in Mt. Lebanon, Superintendent Glenn Smartschan said he prefers to decide on an individual basis.
The process
Before a student can be expelled, the school board listens to the case at a formal hearing at which the district has an attorney and a court reporter is present. The student and parents also may bring an attorney and witnesses and cross examine any witnesses the district offers. Parents may choose an open or closed hearing. School officials said they didn't recall anyone choosing an open hearing.
After listening to a case, a board generally discusses it in an executive session. The vote comes at the next public meeting, but the student's name remains confidential. Faust said a hearing costs about $1,200. Parents can appeal to Common Pleas Court.
Sometimes nothing happens during the first 30 days after an expulsion when the parents must find alternative education. But if parents do nothing, or notify the district they can't afford alternative education, the district prescribes a plan.
Under proposed legislation that passed the state House earlier this month, parents of expelled students would be required to pay for their alternative education unless they can prove, by providing documentation, that they are unable. In that instance, the parents would be required to perform community service to offset the cost.
The legislation was sponsored by state Rep. Allan C. Egolf, R-Cumberland County, who said he believed parents of disruptive children need to get involved in their education.
Under the present system, among superintendents interviewed, most provided teachers to homebound expelled students who do not require special education. They receive five to 20 hours a week of such instruction.
Most districts provide closer to five hours because of the cost. Some pay the home teachers about $20 per hour, because there is a shortage of them.
Such districts as Clairton, Chartiers Valley and Duquesne place expelled students into after-school alternative programs. Baldwin-Whitehall and Bethel Park hope to try the same approach as they start similar programs in coming weeks.
Other alternatives for expelled students lacking special education designations are alternative schools and cyber schools, but both have high tuition costs.
In Baldwin-Whitehall, the district doesn't wait 30 days because, in most cases, parents don't pay for alternative education. But in Mt. Lebanon, Smartschan said, parents have paid in every case for their children's education during expulsion, including three cases last year.
Bethel Park Superintendent Victor Morrone said regular education students who are expelled sometimes are sent to alternative schools, where tuition can reach $10,000 to $11,000 a year, if district officials believe they won't succeed with homebound education alone. Bethel uses home schooling for most regular education students who are expelled.
"We look at the history of the youngster. We ask: Are there problems that led to this behavior? What is the home situation like? Is there a support system there?" he said.
Most special education students who are expelled end up in a full-time alternative school because they have multiple needs.
"By its very nature, special education is a lot more intensive," said Jeff McCloud, a spokesman for the state Department of Education. "That couldn't be accomplished with homebound education, and that explains why they end up in an alternative school."
Special education students receive protection under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which limits their expulsion to 45 days unless they're proven dangerous to themselves or others.
McCloud said there is no 30-day waiting period with them. School districts are responsible for their alternative education during the entire expulsion.
Also, it is more difficult to expel a special education student, particularly if offensive behavior is related to a disability, which renders zero-tolerance policy unenforceable.
That happened when special education student James F. Henry released pepper spray into the ventilation system at Bethel Park High School in April 1999, forcing the school's evacuation and sending 68 students to the hospital. Though removed from school for the remainder of the year, he returned to football camp that summer and to school for his senior year.
Counting expulsions
Most superintendents didn't give firm statistics on expulsions their boards have issued, but most said there were rarely more than a handful a year and some years there were none.
In Bethel Park, there have been as few as two or three and as many as six or seven a year among 5,200 students since Morrone started with the district. Duquesne reported one expulsion last year, none this year. Chartiers Valley reported two last year. Clairton had none the past two years. Baldwin-Whitehall expelled four students during the first grading period this year for drug and alcohol violations. In March 2000, the district expelled a middle school student who brought a shotgun to school.
Faust said he could not comment, because of confidentiality laws, on whether the expulsion was permanent.
In the Peters district, three students have been expelled in the past five years. One was a high school student found with a penknife and a bullet in her purse. Her parents appealed unsuccessfully to Common Pleas Court.
In Brentwood, high school Principal Ron Dufalla remembered only two expulsions in the 25 years he's been with the district. One occurred in the late 1970s when a student pulled the fire alarm when there was no fire. The other was issued within the past several years to a sophomore who was expelled from December until the end of that year, returned for junior and senior years and eventually graduated, Dufalla said.
That's the pattern most expulsions take. "Ninety eight percent of the time, the kids are back within a reasonable period. Usually they are gone one marking period of 45 days," Faust said.
The good news about expulsions from the state Education Department is that those stemming from violent acts are down. All districts must report the number of students suspended and expelled for violent offenses, such as bringing weapons and guns to school, assaulting a staff member or fighting.
The total fell from 41,766 in the 1998-1999 school year to 33,196 in 1999-2000 for a 20.5 percent decrease. Expulsions for less than one year fell from 845 to 582. Expulsions for one year fell from 422 to 306, and expulsions for more than one year went from 123 to 82.
"I think there has been a lot of work there with conflict resolution and bullying. I do think the schools are a lot more secure than they have been in the past," Faust said.
Return standards
Expelled students aren't automatically returned to classrooms after expulsions. Districts generally require a letter from parents asking that students be readmitted. Home-schooled students also must show successful completion of the academic program to which they were assigned -- whether alternative school or keeping up with regular classroom work with the help of a teacher.
Most districts also require participation in counseling for problems that led to the offense they committed. Counseling may include drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs or anger management.
Most districts require a letter from a certified therapist that a student is enrolled either in a program or one-on-one counseling and is making progress.
Counseling generally is covered by the student's family's private health insurance.
In cases where families don't have insurance, students are referred to social service agencies that provide services either free or on a sliding scale, Duquesne High School Principal Dan Stephens said.
Districts usually provide some type of follow-up, such as regular visits with the guidance counselor or social worker, when expelled students return to school. At Bethel Park, returning students must provide the school board a written monthly progress report of attendance, grades and participation in extracurricular activities.
In using expulsion and the follow-up process, school officials conduct a balancing act between warning students that unacceptable behavior and rule breaking will not be tolerated and at the same time allowing the offender a chance to redeem and rehabilitate.
School officials said they had learned suspensions and expulsions alone do not solve the problems of disruptive students. "I agree with people who are opponents or expulsions or suspensions because you can't deal with just the bad behavior; you have to deal with the cause of the behavior," Stephens said.
But Baldwin-Whitehall's Faust said the goal should be to deal with both sides of the issue.
"We have to deal with the punishment side. Our goal is to help them understand, 'You've made a serious mistake. You've got to learn from this and move on and make your life better than it might otherwise have been.'"
Free-lance writer Jackie Day contributed to this story.
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