Colorado — school discipline

Governing authority stated in the sources

Colorado Revised Statutes Title 22, Article 33 — section 22-33-105, "Suspension, expulsion, and denial of admission", with the grounds in 22-33-106 and the court route in 22-33-108 — together with section 22-32-109.1, which requires each district's safe school plan and the "Conduct and discipline code." inside it. The title's own head reads "Colorado Revised Statutes 2024" and every page footer reads "Uncertified Printout", which is the state's own caveat on the document it publishes; the 2025 title was not available at the parallel address on the retrieval date. — CRS Title 22, retrieved Aug 30, 2026

The lines the state draws

The statute stacks its removal powers. A board may "Delegate to any school principal within the school district or to a person designated in writing by the principal the power to suspend a pupil in his school for not more than five school days on the grounds stated in section 22-33-106 (1)(a), (1)(b), (1)(c), or (1)(e) or not more than ten school days on the grounds stated in section 22-33-106 (1)(d);" and may "Suspend, on the grounds stated in section 22-33-106, a pupil from school for not more than another ten school days, or may delegate such power to its executive officer; except that the latter may extend a suspension to an additional ten school days if necessary in order to present the matter to the next meeting of the board of education, but the total period of suspension pursuant to this paragraph (b) and paragraph (a) of this subsection (2) shall not exceed twenty-five school days;". (22-33-105(2)(a), (2)(b)) Beyond that, a board may "Deny admission to, or expel for any period not extending beyond one year, any student whom the board of education, in accordance with the limitations imposed by this article 33, determines does not qualify for admission to, or continued attendance at, the public schools of the district." (22-33-105(2)(c)) The ten-day mark also divides the process owed: "A pupil suspended for a period of ten days or less shall receive an informal hearing by the school principal or the principal's designee prior to the pupil's removal from school, unless an emergency requires immediate removal from school, in which case an informal hearing shall follow as soon after the pupil's removal as practicable. Any pupil suspended for more than ten days shall be given the opportunity to request a review of the suspension before an appropriate official of the school district." (22-33-105(3)(c))

Offices and appeal bodies in these sources

Expulsion runs through a hearing officer and then the board. The district carries the burden: "the school district has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the student violated section 22-33-106 and the school district's policy." (22-33-105(2.3)(a)) The officer must be disinterested: "A hearing officer must not have a conflict of interest with regard to a student under consideration for expulsion or denial of admission, or toward any alleged victim." (22-33-105(2.4)(a)) The decision and the appeal are both timed: "An executive officer shall render a written opinion that imposes or refrains from imposing disciplinary action within five business days after an expulsion hearing is conducted by the executive officer or by a designee acting as a hearing officer." (22-33-105(2.3)(c)) A student expelled after that hearing "has ten business days after the decision of the executive officer is rendered to appeal the decision to the board of education, after which time the decision to grant or deny the appeal is at the discretion of the board of education." (22-33-105(2.3)(d)) If the board upholds the expulsion, "the student is entitled to a review of the decision of the board of education in accordance with section 22-33-108."
No state office, phone number, or email for parents appears in the sources; that absence is the finding.

Sources last checked

Aug 30, 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 Colorado 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 appeal 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. The notice on suspension is immediate and its contents are stated: "If a pupil is suspended pursuant to subsection (2) of this section, the suspending authority shall immediately notify the parent, guardian, or legal custodian of the pupil that the pupil has been suspended and of the grounds for the suspension, the period of the suspension, and the time and place for the parent, guardian, or legal custodian to meet with the suspending authority to review the suspension." (22-33-105(3)(a)) Before expulsion, records must change hands: the district "shall provide all records that the school district intends to use as supporting evidence for expulsion or denial of admission to the student or the student's parent, guardian, or legal custodian at least two business days in which school is in session prior to the expulsion hearing." (22-33-105(2.3)(b)) The state also requires each board to weigh alternatives first: it "shall adopt a policy that states a student must not be expelled or denied admission unless the school district considers whether alternative remedies are appropriate and whether excluding the student from school is necessary to preserve the learning environment." (22-33-105(4.5)) The conduct rules themselves belong to the district's safe school plan, which must include "A concisely written conduct and discipline code that must be enforced uniformly, fairly, and consistently for all students." (22-32-109.1(2)(a)(I)) That code must in turn set "General policies and procedures for determining the circumstances under and the manner in which disciplinary actions, including suspension and expulsion, shall be imposed in accordance with the provisions of sections 22-33-105, 22-33-106, and 22-33-106.1;". Those delegations will anchor the full page's delegation map. For a student with an IEP or Section 504 plan, the disability layer lives on this site's Colorado special education page; the grounds section itself states that where a threat is at issue, "if the child who creates the threat is a child with a disability pursuant to section 22-20-103 (5), the child may not be expelled if the actions creating the threat are a manifestation of the child's disability." (22-33-106(1)(c)) 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.