Connecticut — school discipline
- The lines the state draws
- Connecticut defines every form of exclusion by length. "“Removal” means an exclusion from a classroom for all or part of a single class period, provided such exclusion shall not extend beyond ninety minutes." "“In-school suspension” means an exclusion from regular classroom activity for no more than five consecutive school days, but not exclusion from school, provided such exclusion shall not extend beyond the end of the school year in which such in-school suspension was imposed." "“Suspension” means an exclusion from school privileges or from transportation services only, provided such exclusion shall not extend beyond the end of the school year in which such suspension was imposed." "“Expulsion” means an exclusion from school privileges for more than ten consecutive school days and shall be deemed to include, but not be limited to, exclusion from the school to which such pupil was assigned at the time such disciplinary action was taken, provided such exclusion shall not extend beyond a period of one calendar year." (10-233a) The statute also defines the circumstance that lets a hearing come after the removal rather than before it: "“Emergency” means a situation under which the continued presence of the pupil in school poses such a danger to persons or property or such a disruption of the educational process that a hearing may be delayed until a time as soon after the exclusion of such pupil as possible." There is a further cumulative cap: "no pupil shall be suspended more than ten times or a total of fifty days in one school year, whichever results in fewer days of exclusion, unless such pupil is granted a formal hearing pursuant to sections 4-176e to 4-180a, inclusive, and section 4-181a." (10-233c(a))
- Offices and appeal bodies in these sources
- Suspension is decided by the administration after a hearing: "Unless an emergency exists, no pupil shall be suspended without an informal hearing by the administration, at which such pupil shall be informed of the reasons for the disciplinary action and given an opportunity to explain the situation". (10-233c(a)) Expulsion goes to the board itself or to a body it constitutes: a board "at a meeting at which three or more members of such board are present, or the impartial hearing board established pursuant to subsection (b) of this section, may expel", "provided a majority of the board members sitting in the expulsion hearing vote to expel and that at least three affirmative votes for expulsion are cast." (10-233d(a)(1)) That impartial hearing board is separately constituted: "No member of any such board or boards shall be a member of the hearing board. The hearing board shall have the authority to conduct the expulsion hearing and render a final decision in accordance with the provisions of sections 4-176e to 4-180a, inclusive, and section 4-181a." (10-233d(b)) The expulsion hearing itself is a contested case under the state's Uniform Administrative Procedure Act, and the statute states the notice period, the right to representation, and the right to a postponement.
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 Connecticut 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. Before an expulsion the statute states a formal hearing and a notice period counted in business days: "Unless an emergency exists, no pupil shall be expelled without a formal hearing held pursuant to sections 4-176e to 4-180a, inclusive, and section 4-181a, provided whenever such pupil is a minor, the notice required by section 4-177 and section 4-180 shall also be given to the parents or guardian of the pupil at least five business days before such hearing, not including the day of such hearing." That notice must carry more than the charge: "The notice shall include information concerning the parent's or guardian's and the pupil's legal rights and concerning legal services provided free of charge or at a reduced rate that are available locally and how to access such services. An attorney or other advocate may represent any pupil subject to expulsion proceedings. The parent or guardian of the pupil shall have the right to have the expulsion hearing postponed for up to one week to allow time to obtain representation, except that if an emergency exists, such hearing shall be held as soon after the expulsion as possible." (10-233d(a)(3)) On suspension, the state states both a notice clock and a schoolwork right: an administration "shall not later than twenty-four hours after the suspension notify the superintendent or such superintendent's designee as to the name of the pupil against whom such disciplinary action was taken and the reason therefor", and "Any pupil who is suspended shall be given an opportunity to complete any classwork including, but not limited to, examinations which such pupil missed during the period of suspension." (10-233c(c), (d)) Education during an expulsion is stated conditionally: "No local or regional board of education is required to offer an alternative educational opportunity, except in accordance with this section. Any pupil under sixteen years of age who is expelled shall be offered an alternative educational opportunity". (10-233d(d)) The conduct rules themselves are the board's: the suspension power reaches conduct "violative of a publicized policy of such board", and each board "shall inform all pupils within its jurisdiction and their parents, guardians and surrogate parents, if appointed pursuant to section 10-94g, at least annually, of the board policies governing student conduct and school discipline." (10-233e) That delegation, and the twenty-four-hour exclusion notice in the same section, 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 Connecticut 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.
Source map
| Document | Location | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| C.G.S. Chapter 170, Sections 10-233a – 10-233f (definitions, removal, suspension, expulsion, notice, in-school suspension) | cga.ct.gov | published as the current revision; no revision date printed on the chapter page; retrieved Aug 30, 2026 |
| C.G.S. Sections 4-176e – 4-180a and 4-181a (the contested-case procedure an expulsion hearing runs under) | cited throughout Sections 10-233c and 10-233d | capture pending |
| C.G.S. 10-233o and 10-74j (State Board standards for alternative education during expulsion) | cited in Section 10-233d(d) | capture pending |
| Connecticut State Department of Education guidance on student discipline | — | not located in this review; capture pending |
| District policies governing student conduct and school discipline | each local or regional board, per Sections 10-233c and 10-233e | never captured; the full page's delegation map will point at them |
Change log
Aug 30, 2026 · Baseline page created (discipline-layer breadth sprint). Captured first-party under recipe tools/recipes/connecticut-discipline.json: C.G.S. Chapter 170 as the General Assembly publishes it. Findings recorded: (1) Connecticut defines removal, in-school suspension, suspension, and expulsion each by its own stated length, and defines "emergency" as the condition that lets the hearing follow the exclusion rather than precede it; (2) the statute states a cumulative suspension cap of ten suspensions or fifty days in a school year, whichever produces fewer days of exclusion, above which a formal contested-case hearing is required; (3) expulsion is heard by the board sitting with at least three members, or by a separately constituted impartial hearing board, under the state's Uniform Administrative Procedure Act, with a five-business-day notice to the parent or guardian, a stated right to representation, and a right to a one-week postponement to obtain it; (4) the expulsion notice must itself tell the family about free and reduced-rate legal services and how to reach them, which is unusual among the states captured so far and is recorded as found rather than commented on; (5) an alternative educational opportunity is required only as the section provides, and the statute says so expressly before stating the under-sixteen requirement; (6) the conduct rules are the board's publicized policy, and Section 10-233e requires annual notice of them plus notice of any exclusion within twenty-four hours — a delegation, not an absence, and the entry that will anchor the full page's delegation map; (7) no state office or contact for parents appears in the sources. Capture note: the General Assembly publishes the statutes a chapter at a time with in-page anchors and no per-section address, so the chapter is fetched whole and then narrowed by the recipe's element_range field to Sections 10-233a through 10-233f, ending before 10-233g — the run this page rests on. Captured whole, the chapter puts roughly 678 KB of unrelated board-of-education law in the packet, and every review pass would then diff amendments to sections this page does not quote; narrowed, it holds 48.6 KB. www.cga.ct.gov serves its leaf certificate without the Go Daddy intermediate that signs it, so the fetch is authenticated against a pinned bundle in tools/certs/ rather than the system store, which narrows trust rather than widening it. Not yet built, pending the deepening pass: sections 01–02 (framework, hoisted rows, timelines), the district delegation map, and records access. Internet Archive captures: to be added. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed 2026-08-30. Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.