Kansas — school discipline

The published process

Notice and hearing before exclusion

For a short-term suspension, "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. The hearing may be conducted informally but shall include the following procedural due process requirements: (A) The right of the pupil to be present at the hearing; (B) the right of the pupil to be informed of the charges; (C) the right of the pupil to be informed of the basis for the accusation; and (D) the right of the pupil to make statements in defense or mitigation of the charges or accusations. Refusal of a pupil to be present at the hearing will constitute a waiver of the pupil's opportunity for a hearing." A short-term suspension may instead be imposed first, and the hearing follow: "A written notice of any short-term suspension and the reason therefor 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, in the event the pupil has not been afforded a hearing prior to any short-term suspension, an opportunity for an informal hearing shall be afforded the pupil 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(b)(1), (c)) For an extended-term suspension or an expulsion, "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. A written notice of any proposal to suspend for an extended term or to expel from school, and the charges upon which the proposal is based shall be given to the pupil proposed to be suspended or expelled from school, and to the pupil's parent or guardian. Any notice of a proposal to suspend for an extended term or to expel from school shall state the time, date and place that the pupil will be afforded an opportunity for a formal hearing, and that failure of the pupil and the pupil's parent or guardian to attend the hearing will result in a waiver of the pupil's opportunity for the hearing. The hearing shall be held not later than 10 days after the date of the notice. 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 procedural due process requirements are the fullest statement in these sources: "The right of the pupil to have counsel of the pupil's own choice present and to receive the advice of such counsel or other person whom the pupil may select;" "the right of the parents or guardians of the pupil to be present at the hearing;" "the right of the pupil and the pupil's counsel or advisor to hear or read a full report of testimony of witnesses against the pupil;" "the right of the pupil and the pupil's counsel to confront and cross-examine witnesses who appear in person at the hearing, either voluntarily or as a result of the issuance of a subpoena;" "the right of the pupil to present the pupil's own witnesses in person or their testimony by affidavit;" "the right of the pupil to testify in the pupil's own behalf and give reasons for the pupil's conduct;" "the right of the pupil to have 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))

Services during exclusion

Not stated in the sources reviewed (K.S.A. 72-6114 through 72-6118 were searched): the statute does not say whether or how instruction or coursework continues during a suspension or an expulsion, and, as recorded above, it expressly lifts the compulsory attendance law for the excluded pupil rather than substituting another schooling obligation. A related but distinct provision applies only after a formal hearing has concluded: "Any such pupil shall be provided with information concerning services or programs offered by public and private agencies that work toward improving those aspects of the pupil's attitudes and behavior that contributed to the conduct upon which the suspension or expulsion was based. If the pupil is a juvenile, the information shall also be provided to the parents or guardians of the pupil." (K.S.A. 72-6116(c)) That is a referral to outside behavior-improvement services, not a statement about continued education, and the two are not conflated here.

The record made, and the appeal route

"In all extended-term suspension and expulsion from school cases, 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)) After the hearing, "the person or committee conducting the hearing shall make a written report of the findings and results of the hearing." That report is directed to the board and open to inspection as detailed in Records access below; the same subsection lets the hearing officer or committee find that the pupil may return to school pending appeal, or require the exclusion to continue until the appeal is decided or the term expires. (K.S.A. 72-6116(c)) The appeal itself runs to the board of education: written notice of a hearing result on an extended-term suspension or an expulsion goes out within 24 hours, and the pupil (if 18 or older) or a parent or guardian may then appeal "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." The appeal is heard by the board, or a hearing officer it appoints, "not later than 20 calendar days" after the notice of appeal is filed, under rules consonant with K.S.A. 72-6116, and the board's decision on the appeal comes "not later than five days after the conclusion of the appeal hearing" unless a hearing officer heard it, in which case the board decides "not later than the next regularly-scheduled meeting of the board following the date of the conclusion of the hearing of the appeal by the hearing officer." (K.S.A. 72-6117(a), (b), (c))

If the student has an IEP or Section 504 plan

The disability layer (evaluations, the IEP team, manifestation determination, services during removal, and the dispute routes) lives on this site's Kansas special education page. The discipline sections reviewed here do not themselves cross-reference disability law.

The four rows above answer the questions an experienced adviser raises first, from the state's own statutes, or record that a question is not answered in them.

Timelines, as stated in the sources

All quoted; none calculated. From K.S.A. 72-6114 through 72-6118 as retrieved Sep 15, 2026.

On suspension and expulsion length: a short-term suspension "not exceeding 10 school days," an extended-term suspension "not exceeding 90 school days." An expulsion may run "not exceeding 186 school days." (K.S.A. 72-6115(a))

On notice of a short-term suspension already imposed: written notice "within 24 hours after the suspension has been imposed". (K.S.A. 72-6115(c))

On the informal hearing that follows: "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))

On the formal hearing before an extended-term suspension or expulsion: "not later than 10 days after the date of the notice." (K.S.A. 72-6115(d))

On notice of a formal hearing's result: "within 24 hours after determination of such result." (K.S.A. 72-6117(a))

On filing an appeal to the board: "not later than 10 calendar days after receiving the written notice." (K.S.A. 72-6117(b))

On the board hearing that appeal: "not later than 20 calendar days" after the notice of appeal is filed. (K.S.A. 72-6117(b))

On the board's decision after an appeal hearing: "not later than five days after the conclusion of the appeal hearing", except where a hearing officer heard the appeal. (K.S.A. 72-6117(b))

On the board's decision where a hearing officer heard the appeal: "not later than the next regularly-scheduled meeting of the board following the date of the conclusion of the hearing of the appeal by the hearing officer." (K.S.A. 72-6117(c))

What any of this means for a particular situation is for the agency and its processes to determine.

Assigned to district policy by the quoted provision

The statute writes the frame and expressly hands part of it to each district's board of education. Each entry below is a question the board's own regulations answer, with the delegating text quoted. No district's regulations are captured or quoted here.

What counts as a suspendable or expellable offense, beyond the statute's own list. The first ground for discipline is "Willful violation of any published regulation for student conduct adopted or approved by the board of education" — the content of that regulation is the district's to write. (K.S.A. 72-6114(a))

Who within the district may suspend or expel. The board may act itself or "by regulation authorize any certificated employee or committee of certificated employees to suspend or expel" a pupil. (K.S.A. 72-6114)

How the formal hearing is conducted. "The formal hearing provided for in K.S.A. 72-6115, and amendments thereto, shall be conducted in accordance with regulations relating thereto adopted by the board of education." That hearing is otherwise bound only by the procedural due process floor the statute then lists. (K.S.A. 72-6116(a)) The statute also assumes those regulations exist and must reach the family: a formal-hearing 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))

Whether to use a hearing officer for an appeal, and for which hearings. "For the purpose of hearing an appeal of an extended-term suspension or an expulsion, the board of education may appoint one or more hearing officers." "Any such appointment shall apply to a particular hearing or to a set or class of hearings as specified by the board of education in making the appointment." (K.S.A. 72-6117(c))

Records access, as stated in the sources

The hearing report is subject to a stated inspection rule rather than general disclosure: after a formal hearing, the written report of findings and results "shall be directed to the board of education of the school district and shall be open to the inspection of the pupil who is suspended or expelled and, if the pupil is a juvenile, to the parents or guardians and counsel or other advisor of the pupil. If the pupil is an adult, the report shall be open to the inspection of the parents or guardians and counsel or other advisor of the pupil only upon written consent of the pupil." (K.S.A. 72-6116(c)) Beyond that report, general discipline-record access and expungement are not stated in the sources reviewed (K.S.A. 72-6114 through 72-6118 were searched). Federal records rights under FERPA are not restated here.

Change log

Sep 15, 2026 · Deepened to full depth (discipline-layer deepening pass). Recaptured first-party under the standing recipe tools/recipes/kansas-discipline.json (digest d91965c223f1): K.S.A. 72-6114 through 72-6118, same five addresses as the baseline capture. The recapture reproduced the statutory text of all five sections unchanged from the Aug 30, 2026 baseline; the only differences were extraction quality (a handful of raw HTML table/font fragments the earlier html-text extraction had left unstripped are absent from this capture) and one added line in the Legislature's site-wide footer navigation (a meeting notice dated 09/03/2026) — neither touches any quoted statutory text, so the capture was retained as confirmed rather than as drift. Built out sections 01 and 02, the timelines block, the district delegation map, and records access from the same five sections; no new source was fetched. Findings recorded: (1) the statute's procedural due process requirements scale with term length — four rights for the informal hearing before a short-term suspension, eight for the formal hearing before an extended-term suspension or expulsion; (2) the emergency case lets a district suspend first and hold the hearing after, on a 24-hour notice clock and a 72-hour hearing clock; (3) K.S.A. 72-6118 lifts the compulsory attendance law for an excluded pupil, and the sources reviewed do not say what, if anything, replaces schooling during that period — recorded as a genuine absence, not inferred from the attendance provision; (4) the only records-inspection rule stated is for the post-hearing written report itself, gated on the pupil's age and, for an adult pupil, the pupil's written consent; general discipline-record access and expungement are not addressed; (5) the delegation map rests on four clauses: the content of the district's own student-conduct regulation, who within the district may suspend or expel, the conduct of the formal hearing itself, and whether to use a hearing officer for an appeal. No state office, phone number, or email for parents appears in any of the five sections; that absence, recorded at baseline, stands unchanged. Kansas State Department of Education guidance on student discipline remains unlocated and uncaptured — a recipe-backfill candidate, not a blocker to this page. Internet Archive captures: to be added. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter. Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.

Aug 30, 2026 · Baseline page created (discipline-layer breadth sprint). Captured first-party under recipe tools/recipes/kansas-discipline.json: K.S.A. 72-6114 through 72-6118, each from its own address at the Office of Revisor of Statutes. Findings recorded: (1) Kansas states three terms in statute — a short-term suspension not exceeding 10 school days, an extended term not exceeding 90, and an expulsion not exceeding 186 — and states what happens when a term outruns the school year; (2) the short-term line doubles as the line between an informal hearing and a formal one, and the statute states the contents of each rather than leaving them to policy; (3) the emergency case is stated as permission to suspend first, followed by a 24-hour written notice and an informal hearing no later than 72 hours after the suspension; (4) before a formal hearing the notice must state time, date and place, the hearing must be held not later than 10 days after the notice, and the notice must be accompanied by a copy of the act and the board's own regulations — a statutory requirement that the family be handed the rules; (5) the appeal runs to the board of education on a 24-hour result notice, a 10-calendar-day filing window, and a hearing not later than 20 calendar days; (6) the formal hearing is conducted under regulations the board adopts, and the first ground for discipline is willful violation of the board's published student conduct regulation — delegations, not absences, and the entries that will anchor the full page's delegation map; (7) no state office or parent contact appears in the sources. Capture note: the revisor's section pages carry case annotations, attorney general opinions, and law review references after the statutory text; those are present in the packet as the state serves them, and nothing on this page is quoted from them, because this module quotes no court opinions. Internet Archive captures: to be added. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed 2026-08-30. Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.

Oct 6, 2026 · Internet Archive captures recorded. Captures requested on 2026-09-06 by an automated capture pass and recorded this date; no human review is claimed for this entry. No quotation, date, finding or link above was changed by it. Each capture below was requested through Save Page Now and then confirmed to play back. Captures added: K.S.A. 72-6115 → https://web.archive.org/web/20260906132206/https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch72/072_061_0015.html; ksrevisor.gov → https://web.archive.org/web/20260906132317/https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch72/072_061_0016.html; ksrevisor.gov → https://web.archive.org/web/20260906132438/https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch72/072_061_0017.html; ksrevisor.gov → https://web.archive.org/web/20260906132514/https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch72/072_061_0018.html. Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.