Wyoming — school discipline

Governing authority stated in the sources

Wyoming Statutes §§ 21-4-305 ("Suspension or expulsion; authority; procedure") and 21-4-306 ("Suspension or expulsion; grounds"), Title 21, Chapter 4. The Legislative Service Office publishes the whole title as one compressed PDF with no per-section address. — W.S. Title 21, Ch. 4, retrieved Sep 1, 2026

The lines the state draws

A single one-year ceiling covers both suspension and expulsion: "No suspension or expulsion shall be for longer than one (1) year." (§ 21-4-305(e)) Within that ceiling the hearing timing depends on length: for "a suspension of ten (10) school days or less," a student gets an opportunity to be heard before removal unless "the student's presence endangers persons or property or threatens disruption of the academic process," in which case immediate removal is allowed with the opportunity to be heard to follow within a stated window measured in hours, not counting weekends. (§ 21-4-305(c)(i)) For a suspension or expulsion longer than ten school days, "a hearing shall be held in accordance with the Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act" and, absent an approved extension, "the hearing shall be held within ten (10) business days" of the disciplinarian's recommendation, with the student's suspension continuing until the hearing is held. (§ 21-4-305(c)(ii)) A mandatory one-year expulsion applies to a weapons violation, subject to case-by-case modification under subsection (d): "require the district superintendent to expel from school for a period of one (1) year any student determined to violate paragraph (a)(v) of this section." (§ 21-4-306(c))

Offices and appeal bodies in these sources

The statute names one appeal route, direct to court rather than to a state education office: "Any decision of the board, or of a designated superintendent, shall be considered a final decision which may be appealed to the district court of the county in which the school district is located, pursuant to provisions of the Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act." (§ 21-4-305(f))
No state office, phone number, or email for parents appears in the captured sections; that absence is a finding.

Sources last checked

Sep 1, 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 Wyoming 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. Wyoming states its notice requirements in detail: a disciplinarian must "Give the student to be suspended or expelled oral or written notice of the charges against him and an explanation of the evidence the authorities have;" the disciplinarian must also "In good faith attempt to notify the student's parents, guardians or custodians within twenty-four (24) hours of the student's suspension or expulsion and the reasons for the suspension or expulsion, using contact information on record with the school or district." (§ 21-4-305(b)(i)-(ii)) The statute defines the term itself as a floor, not a full hearing, in most cases: "at a minimum a meeting in which the disciplinarian or his designee provides the substantive information regarding the suspension or expulsion to the student to be suspended, and the student to be suspended may dispute the substantive information provided." (§ 21-4-305(g)) That delegation will anchor the full page's delegation map. Grounds for suspension or expulsion include willful disobedience, destruction of school property, behavior the local board finds detrimental to other pupils (including "habitually disruptive behavior" as the statute defines it), physical violence against a pupil or teacher, and weapon possession on a school bus or district property. (§ 21-4-306(a)) For a student with an IEP or Section 504 plan, that layer lives on this site's Wyoming special education page. District policies add procedural detail this page does not carry. 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.