Arizona — school discipline

Governing authority stated in the sources

Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 15, Chapter 7, Article 3: § 15-843 (pupil disciplinary proceedings), § 15-841 (responsibilities of pupils; expulsion; alternative education programs; alternative to suspension programs; placement review committee), § 15-842 (damage to school property; suspension or expulsion of pupil; liability of parent), and § 15-844 (suspension and expulsion proceedings for children with disabilities).
The Legislature publishes each section as a static document; none of the four carries a publication or amendment date on its own page, so this page's dates are retrieval dates rather than the sources' own. That is the first time in this layer that no captured source states its own currency. — § 15-843, retrieved Aug 29, 2026

The lines the state draws

Arizona sets the grounds and the ten-day marker, and hands the procedure to the district. The statute names the grounds for expulsion — "continued open defiance of authority, continued disruptive or disorderly behavior, violent behavior that includes use or display of a dangerous instrument or a deadly weapon as defined in section 13-105, use or possession of a gun, or excessive absenteeism" — and then declines to make that list exhaustive: "A school district may expel pupils for actions other than those listed in this subsection as the school district deems appropriate." (§ 15-841(B)) The ten-day marker appears not as a cap but as the point at which the board's own rules must supply procedure: those rules must include "A notice and hearing procedure for cases concerning the suspension of a pupil for more than ten days", "Procedures and conditions for readmitting a pupil who has been expelled or suspended for more than ten days", and "Procedures to appeal to the governing board the suspension of a pupil for more than ten days, if the decision to suspend the pupil was not made by the governing board." (§ 15-843(B)5, 6, 7) For the youngest students the statute is directive rather than delegating: a district or charter school "may suspend or expel a pupil who is enrolled in a kindergarten program, first grade, second grade, third grade or fourth grade only if all of the following apply:" the pupil "is seven years of age or older" and the conduct meets one of four stated criteria, the last of which requires documented persistent behavior, behavior "unresponsive to targeted interventions as documented through an established intervention process", and that "The pupil's parent or guardian was notified and consulted about the ongoing behavior." (§ 15-843(K))

Offices and appeal bodies in these sources

The governing board of the school district. It is the board that "shall prescribe rules for the discipline, suspension and expulsion of pupils", in consultation with teachers and parents. (§ 15-843(B)) In an expulsion the board must "Be notified of the intended action" and must either decide in executive session whether to hold the hearing itself or to designate hearing officers, or provide by policy that all such hearings go before a hearing officer from a board-approved list. (§ 15-843(F)1, 2) The notice period is stated: the board must "Give written notice, at least five working days before the hearing by the governing board or the hearing officer or officers designated by the governing board, to all pupils subject to expulsion and their parents or guardians of the date, time and place of the hearing." (§ 15-843(F)3) A hearing may be closed, but the parent may object: where a parent, guardian, or emancipated pupil "disagrees that the hearing should be held in executive session, the hearing shall be held in an open meeting" subject to the section's stated exceptions, and where the board decides on executive session the written notice must include "a statement of the right of the parents or guardians or an emancipated pupil who is subject to expulsion to object to the governing board's decision to have the hearing held in executive session." (§ 15-843(F)3, (G))
Whether any appeal exists beyond the board is not stated in the sources reviewed; what the statute requires is that the board's own rules contain appeal procedures. No state office, phone number, or email for parents appears in the sources reviewed. That absence is the finding.

Sources last checked

Aug 29, 2026

Reproduced from the state's own statutes quoted below: potentially relevant official sources, not a determination of which one governs any situation.

This page assembles what Arizona publishes in statute about K-12 school discipline. This is a baseline docket page: the governing sections, the lines the state draws, and the decision-makers and hearing route, quoted with dates. The full sections (the framework route by route, the four hoisted process rows, every stated timeline, the district delegation map, and records access) follow as the discipline layer deepens behind its breadth sprint; the change log states exactly what is not yet captured. More of Arizona's procedure is delegated than in any state in this layer so far, and the statute says so in the form of a list. The board's rules "shall be consistent with the constitutional rights of pupils and shall include at least" ten stated items, among them penalties for excessive absenteeism, "Procedures for using corporal punishment if allowed by the governing board", procedures for the reasonable use of physical force, procedures for pupils believed to have committed a crime, the notice-and-hearing and readmission and appeal procedures keyed to ten days, appeal of a hearing officer's recommendation, and disciplinary policies for "confining pupils who are left alone in an enclosed space" — which must themselves include prior written parental notification and prior written parental consent, with a stated exemption where "a school principal or teacher determines that the pupil poses imminent physical harm to self or others." (§ 15-843(B)) One structural point a parent may not expect: these proceedings sit outside the open meeting law. "An action concerning discipline, suspension or expulsion of a pupil is not subject to title 38, chapter 3, article 3.1, except that the governing board of a school district shall post regular notice and shall take minutes of any hearing held by the governing board concerning the discipline, suspension or expulsion of a pupil." (§ 15-843(A)) On alternatives, the statute permits reassignment rather than exclusion: "As an alternative to suspension or expulsion, the school district may reassign any pupil to an alternative education program". (§ 15-841(E)) And on withdrawal, it forecloses one exit: "If a pupil withdraws from school after receiving notice of possible action concerning discipline, expulsion or suspension, the governing board may continue with the action after the withdrawal and may record the results of such action in the pupil's permanent file." (§ 15-843(E)) For a student with an IEP or Section 504 plan, Arizona routes the question away from these sections entirely, in a single sentence: "Notwithstanding sections 15-841 and 15-842, the suspension or expulsion of children with disabilities, as defined in section 15-761, shall be in accordance with the individuals with disabilities education act (20 United States Code sections 1410 through 1485) and federal regulations issued pursuant to the individuals with disabilities education act." (§ 15-844) That disability layer lives on this site's Arizona special education page. Confirm applicability with the district and the agencies. All dates on this page are quoted from the sources, not a deadline calculation performed for you.