Mississippi — school discipline
- The lines the state draws
- Mississippi states one length, and states it as automatic. A student who possesses a controlled substance, "a knife, handgun, other firearm or any other instrument considered to be dangerous and capable of causing bodily harm or who commits a violent act on educational property as defined in Section 97-37-17, Mississippi Code of 1972, shall be subject to automatic expulsion for a calendar year by the superintendent or principal of the school in which the student is enrolled; provided, however, that the superintendent of the school shall be authorized to modify the period of time for such expulsion on a case by case basis." (§ 37-11-18) A second expulsion route runs on a count rather than a clock: a student aged thirteen or older for whom a behavior modification plan has been developed and who does not comply "shall be deemed habitually disruptive and subject to expulsion on the occurrence of the third act of disruptive behavior during a school year. After the second act of disruptive behavior during a school year by a student, a psychological evaluation shall be performed upon the child." (§ 37-11-18.1(3)) No suspension length, no short-term versus long-term threshold, and no emergency-removal provision appear in the sources reviewed; those absences are the finding, and the day counts a parent is looking for sit in the district's own discipline plan.
- Offices and appeal bodies in these sources
- The automatic expulsion is the superintendent's or principal's, and the statute states both its immediacy and its limit in one sentence: "Such expulsion shall take effect immediately subject to the constitutional rights of due process, which shall include the student's right to appeal to the local school board." (§ 37-11-18) That appeal to the local school board is the only forum named in the sources reviewed; the statute does not state a clock for it, and no further appeal, hearing procedure, state office, phone number, or email for parents appears. Those absences are the finding. What the sources do state is that the district's own plan must be checked by a lawyer every year: "The school board shall have its official discipline plan and code of student conduct legally audited on an annual basis to ensure that its policies and procedures are currently in compliance with applicable statutes, case law and state and federal constitutional provisions." (§ 37-11-53(1))
- Sources last checked
- Aug 30, 2026
Reproduced from the state's own statute guide quoted below: potentially relevant official sources, not a determination of which one governs any situation.
This page assembles what Mississippi publishes about K-12 school discipline in the Department of Education's own guide to the school statutes. This is a baseline docket page: the governing sections, the lines the state draws, and the decision-makers, 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. Mississippi legislates the contents of the district's code rather than the procedure itself. The code of student conduct must be adopted and made available "at the beginning of each school year" and "developed in consultation with teachers, school personnel, students and parents or guardians", and must include "Specific grounds for disciplinary action under the school district's discipline plan;" and "Procedures to be followed for acts requiring discipline, including suspensions and expulsion, which comply with due process requirements;". (§ 37-11-55) That second clause is where the notice and hearing a family will actually meet are located: the state requires that the district write them and that they comply with due process, without stating them. The plan must also reach every family — "A copy of the school district's discipline plan shall be distributed to each student enrolled in the district, and the parents, guardian or custodian of such student shall sign a statement verifying that they have been given notice of the discipline policies of their respective school district." (§ 37-11-53(1)) One alternative to removal is stated in the statute and left to the plan to adopt: a plan "may provide that as an alternative to suspension, a student may remain in school by having the parent, guardian or custodian, with the consent of the student's teacher or teachers, attend class with the student for a period of time specifically agreed upon by the reporting teacher and school principal." (§ 37-11-53(5)) A classroom removal has its own stated condition on return: the student "may not be returned to the classroom until a conference of some kind has been held with the parent, guardian or custodian during which the disrupting behavior is discussed and agreements are reached that no further disruption will be tolerated." (§ 37-11-55(d)) Before a student can be treated as habitually disruptive, the state requires a plan first: "no student shall be considered to be habitually disruptive before the development of a behavior modification plan for the student in accordance with the code of student conduct and discipline plans of the school district", and every such plan "must be developed by utilizing evidence-based practices and positive behavioral intervention supports" and "implemented no later than two (2) weeks after the occurrence of the disruptive behavior." (§ 37-11-18.1(1)(b), (2)) 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 Mississippi 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 |
|---|---|---|
| MDE Quick Reference to School Related Statutes, pages 20–29 (Miss. Code Ann. §§ 37-11-18 – 37-11-57) | mdek12.org | the document titles itself June 2024; retrieved Aug 30, 2026 |
| Miss. Code Ann. §§ 37-11-18 – 37-11-57, as published by the state itself | not published in fetchable full text on a first-party Mississippi site; the Legislature's host serves bill status rather than the Code | capture pending; the finding is recorded in the change log |
| Mississippi Administrative Code Title 7 (State Board of Education policies) on discipline | sos.ms.gov serves the administrative code as PDFs | not yet located for this layer; capture pending |
| MDE guidance on student discipline and safe and orderly schools | — | not located in this review; capture pending |
| District discipline plans and codes of student conduct | each district, per §§ 37-11-53 and 37-11-55 | 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/mississippi-discipline.json: the Department of Education's Quick Reference to School Related Statutes, scoped to pages 20–29, which carry Miss. Code Ann. §§ 37-11-18 through 37-11-57. Findings recorded: (1) Mississippi does not publish its Code's text on a first-party site this project can fetch — the Legislature's own host serves bill status rather than the Code, and the Code is published through a commercial publisher — so the state's fullest first-party statement of these statutes is an agency reference guide, and the statutes themselves are listed as capture pending rather than quoted from a non-state host; (2) the statute states one removal length, an automatic expulsion for a calendar year for weapons, controlled substances, or a violent act, which the superintendent may modify case by case; (3) a second expulsion route runs on a count — a third act of disruptive behavior in a school year by a student aged thirteen or older for whom a behavior modification plan was developed — with a psychological evaluation required after the second act; (4) there is no suspension length, no short-term versus long-term threshold, and no emergency-removal provision in the sources reviewed, and all three are recorded as not stated rather than inferred; (5) the only appeal named is to the local school board, stated without a clock, and no hearing procedure appears — the state requires instead that the district's plan contain procedures "which comply with due process requirements", which is a delegation with a standard attached rather than an absence, and the entry that will anchor the full page's delegation map; (6) the statute requires each district to have its discipline plan and code of student conduct legally audited annually against statutes, case law, and constitutional provisions, which no other state captured so far requires; (7) no state office or parent contact appears in the sources. Capture note: the guide is a 118-page document and the capture is scoped to the ten pages carrying the discipline statutes, so a review pass diffs those rather than every school statute in Mississippi. A certificate bundle for the Legislature's host (tools/certs/globalsign-rsa-ov-ssl-ca-2018.pem) was added while probing for a first-party Code source; it is not used by this recipe and is retained for the later attempt. 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.