In Montgomery County, a 14-year-old in trouble for fighting was out of class for almost four weeks before he received a ruling on whether he would be expelled.
In Prince George’s County, a 17-year-old special education student idled at home for nearly a month without a disciplinary ruling, and then was assigned to an alternative school as he waited three more weeks. When a hearing was finally held, he was returned to his original school the next day.
School days 2011-12
These and other accounts of life in academic limbo — from lawyers involved — are in the spotlight as the Maryland State Board of Education considers a measure to speed up disciplinary decision-making in the state’s 24 school systems.
Discipline issues became a board focus after the January suicide of a student-athlete in Virginia. Nick Stuban, 15, was out of class for seven weeks in Fairfax County and transferred to a different high school amid a disciplinary process that his parents say contributed to his despair.
Eyeing that case and others, Maryland has proposed guidelines that ask for decisions in serious discipline cases within 10 days. Appeals would be handled according to a timeline.
Disciplinary actions that drag on “can have devastating effects on some children,” said board member Madhu Sidhu. Campus safety is a priority, but “we should not have children just staying at home and watching television over a lengthy period.”
The board’s proposed 10-day time frame is at odds with how some cases are handled in Montgomery and Prince George’s. Montgomery has told the board that the idea is “very unrealistic,” warning against a “one-size-fits-all” approach.
Most school districts in Maryland said they could abide by the proposal, said Carl Roberts, executive director of the Public School Superintendents Association of Maryland, who surveyed each system.
“Most of us already do it; we do it in different ways, but we do it,” said Craig Cummings, coordinator of alternative education and pupil personnel in Howard County, who was part of a state-organized group exploring the idea last spring.
In Calvert County, Superintendent Jack R. Smith said his system meets that 10-day goal in the “vast majority of cases.” Still, he said, he is against rigid rules that could overturn decisions for the occasional instance of, say, human error or weather delay.
“We have to meet the kids’ needs and not leave them languishing in never-never land,” he said. “But at the same time, we can’t make unreasonable rules that lead to unintended outcomes.”
The state does not collect data on class time missed during the disciplinary process. But more than 60,000 students a year are suspended from school or expelled in Maryland, according to state figures.
Montgomery stands apart from many systems in its use of a two-stage decision-making process. First, there is an investigative conference within 10 days; two-thirds of students are returned to school.
But for the others — about 150 students a year — a second conference is scheduled, with a process that stretches “three to four weeks, and sometimes longer,” from suspension to ruling, said Wayne Whigham, director of the appeals and transfer office.
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