Kansas — school discipline

Governing authority stated in the sources

Kansas Statutes Annotated 72-6114 (grounds, and who may suspend or expel), 72-6115 (duration, notice, and hearings), 72-6116 (procedural due process requirements), 72-6117 (notice of results and appeal to the board of education), and 72-6118 (nonapplication of the compulsory attendance law during a suspension or expulsion). The Office of Revisor of Statutes publishes each section with its session-law history and no separate revision date; that absence is recorded here rather than filled. — K.S.A. 72-6115, retrieved Aug 30, 2026

The lines the state draws

Kansas states three terms in a single subsection. "A suspension may be for a short term not exceeding 10 school days, or for an extended term not exceeding 90 school days. An expulsion may be for a term not exceeding 186 school days. If a suspension or expulsion is for a term exceeding the number of school days remaining in the school year, any remaining part of the term of the suspension or expulsion may be applied to the succeeding school year." (K.S.A. 72-6115(a)) The short-term line is also the line between an informal and a formal hearing. Below it: "no suspension for a short term shall be imposed upon a pupil without giving the pupil notice of the charges and affording the pupil an opportunity for a hearing thereon. The notice may be oral or written and the hearing may be held immediately after the notice is given." Above it: "No suspension for an extended term and no expulsion shall be imposed upon a pupil until an opportunity for a formal hearing thereon is afforded the pupil." (K.S.A. 72-6115(b)(1), (d)) The emergency case is stated as an exception with the hearing to follow: "A short-term suspension may be imposed upon a pupil forthwith, and without affording the pupil a hearing if the presence of the pupil endangers other persons or property or substantially disrupts, impedes or interferes with the operation of the school." (K.S.A. 72-6115(b)(2))

Offices and appeal bodies in these sources

The hearing may be held by whoever the board designates: "A formal hearing on a suspension or expulsion may be conducted by any person or committee of persons authorized by the board of education to conduct the hearing." (K.S.A. 72-6115(f)) The appeal runs to the board, on stated clocks: "Written notice of the result of any hearing imposing an extended-term suspension or an expulsion from school shall be given to the pupil suspended or expelled from school, and to the parents or guardians of the pupil within 24 hours after determination of such result." Then, a pupil aged 18 or older, or a parent or guardian of a younger pupil, "may appeal such suspension or expulsion to the board of education of the school district by filing a written notice of appeal with the clerk of the board of education not later than 10 calendar days after receiving the written notice. Any such appeal shall be heard by the board of education, or by a hearing officer appointed by such board, not later than 20 calendar days" after the filing. (K.S.A. 72-6117(a), (b))
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 Kansas 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. Kansas states the informal hearing's contents as rights: it "may be conducted informally but shall include the following procedural due process requirements:" "The right of the pupil to be present at the hearing;" "the right of the pupil to be informed of the charges;" "the right of the pupil to be informed of the basis for the accusation; and" "the right of the pupil to make statements in defense or mitigation of the charges or accusations." (K.S.A. 72-6115(b)(1)) Where a short-term suspension is imposed first, the state states both a notice clock and a hearing clock: written notice "shall be given to the pupil involved and to the pupil's parent or guardian within 24 hours after the suspension has been imposed", and an opportunity for an informal hearing must follow "as soon thereafter as practicable but in no event later than 72 hours after such short-term suspension has been imposed." (K.S.A. 72-6115(c)) Before a formal hearing, the notice must state "the time, date and place that the pupil will be afforded an opportunity for a formal hearing", the hearing "shall be held not later than 10 days after the date of the notice", and the notice "shall be accompanied by a copy of this act and the regulations of the board of education adopted under K.S.A. 72-6116, and amendments thereto." (K.S.A. 72-6115(d)) The formal hearing's own rights are the fullest statement in these sources, and the statute lists them: counsel of the pupil's choice, the parents' presence, hearing or reading a full report of testimony against the pupil, confrontation and cross-examination of witnesses who appear, the pupil's own witnesses in person or by affidavit, the pupil's own testimony, an orderly hearing, and "the right of the pupil to a fair and impartial decision based on substantial evidence." (K.S.A. 72-6116(a)) A record is made and the district pays for it: "there shall be made a record of the hearing of an appeal of the suspension or expulsion, whichever is applicable, by mechanical or electronic recording or by an official court reporter, and the costs thereof shall be paid by the school district." (K.S.A. 72-6116(b)) What that formal hearing looks like in operation is still the board's to write — the section opens by stating that the hearing "shall be conducted in accordance with regulations relating thereto adopted by the board of education", and the first ground for discipline in the chapter is "Willful violation of any published regulation for student conduct adopted or approved by the board of education". (K.S.A. 72-6116(a), 72-6114) 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 Kansas 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.