Legal Question Of The Week - 9/19/12
By Attorney Thomas B. Mooney, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut
The "Legal Question of the Week" is a regular feature of the CAS Weekly NewsBlast. We invite readers to submit short, law-related questions of practical concern to school administrators. Each week, we will select a question and publish an answer. While these answers cannot be considered formal legal advice, they may be of help to you and your colleagues. We may edit your questions, and we will not identify the authors. Please submit your questions to: legalmailbag@casciac.org
Dear Legal Mailbag:
Do we have to count time served in juvenile detention as part of an expulsion decision? For example, a student was found in possession of marijuana on school property in January. He was arrested for Possession of marijuana with intent to sell, Assault 3rd, Interfering with police and Breach of peace. He was suspended for 10 days, but before we could expel him, the student was placed in juvenile detention. He was released in July. We held the expulsion hearing on the first day this school year, and we expelled him for 180 days. Does his time served in corrections count toward that 180 days set forth in the expulsion decision?
Signed,
Counting the Days
Dear Counting:
The time in detention must be counted. The General Assembly recently addressed this issue in Public Act Public Act 11-115, An Act Concerning Juvenile Reentry and Education. It add new subsection l to Conn. Gen. Stat. § 10-233d. The new law provides that, when a student commits an expellable offense, he/she may be expelled, but that the expulsion must run concurrently with the time served in a juvenile detention center. The law presents a challenge, because it further provides that if a student is released from juvenile detention and has not been expelled for that offense, the district “shall allow such student to return and may not expel the student for additional time for such offense.” Given this provision and the practical problems, we recommend that during the detention period school officials notify the parents that an expulsion will be held when the student is available. Then, we believe, any expulsion when the student is released and is available for the hearing would be timely and appropriate. Any expulsion period, however, must run concurrently with the time in detention.
The "Legal Question of the Week" is a regular feature of the CAS Weekly NewsBlast. We invite readers to submit short, law-related questions of practical concern to school administrators. Each week, we will select a question and publish an answer. While these answers cannot be considered formal legal advice, they may be of help to you and your colleagues. We may edit your questions, and we will not identify the authors. Please submit your questions to: legalmailbag@casciac.org
Dear Legal Mailbag:
Do we have to count time served in juvenile detention as part of an expulsion decision? For example, a student was found in possession of marijuana on school property in January. He was arrested for Possession of marijuana with intent to sell, Assault 3rd, Interfering with police and Breach of peace. He was suspended for 10 days, but before we could expel him, the student was placed in juvenile detention. He was released in July. We held the expulsion hearing on the first day this school year, and we expelled him for 180 days. Does his time served in corrections count toward that 180 days set forth in the expulsion decision?
Signed,
Counting the Days
Dear Counting:
The time in detention must be counted. The General Assembly recently addressed this issue in Public Act Public Act 11-115, An Act Concerning Juvenile Reentry and Education. It add new subsection l to Conn. Gen. Stat. § 10-233d. The new law provides that, when a student commits an expellable offense, he/she may be expelled, but that the expulsion must run concurrently with the time served in a juvenile detention center. The law presents a challenge, because it further provides that if a student is released from juvenile detention and has not been expelled for that offense, the district “shall allow such student to return and may not expel the student for additional time for such offense.” Given this provision and the practical problems, we recommend that during the detention period school officials notify the parents that an expulsion will be held when the student is available. Then, we believe, any expulsion when the student is released and is available for the hearing would be timely and appropriate. Any expulsion period, however, must run concurrently with the time in detention.