Challenges to School Exclusion: Exclusion, Appeals and the Law PDF
Preview Challenges to School Exclusion: Exclusion, Appeals and the Law
Challenges to School Exclusion Permanent exclusion is the most severe sanction a school can impose on a child and the number of permanently excluded children is rising. Based on systematic observation of exclusion appeal panel hearings, Challenges to School Exclusion offers a unique insight into the appeal process. It focuses on: • mechanisms by which parents and children can challenge permanent exclusion (cid:127) the law and current practice on school discipline, including exclusion (cid:127) the social context to exclusion (cid:127) reforms to the appeal system made by the School Standards and Framework Act (cid:127) the DFEE’s latest guidance on pupil inclusion. Challenges to School Exclusion is the first study to examine in detail the legal processes involved in challenging permanent exclusion. The findings reveal serious deficiencies in the appeal system, including a frequent failure to deal fairly with excluded children. The text will be of particular interest to head teachers, local education authorities, school governors, education lawyers and education charities. Neville Harris is Professor of Law at the School of Law and Applied Social Studies at Liverpool John Moores University. He has written extensively on education law and is the senior editor of the Education Law Reports. Karen Eden is a research officer at the Trust for the Study of Adolescence based in Brighton. She has also worked as a research fellow in the School of Law and Applied Social Studies at Liverpool John Moores University. Ann Blair is a lecturer in law at the University of Leeds. She has worked in the voluntary sector and has served as a school governor. Challenges to School Exclusion Exclusion, Appeals and the Law Neville Harris and Karen Eden with Ann Blair London and New York First published 2000 by RoutledgeFalmer 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeFalmer 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. RoutledgeFalmer is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2000 Neville Harris and Karen Eden, with Ann Blair All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Harris, Neville S. Challenges to school exclusion: exclusion, appeals and the law/ Neville Harris and Karen Eden with Ann Blair. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Student expulsion—Law and legislation—Great Britain. 2. Student expulsion—Great Britain. I. Eden, Karen. II. Blair, Ann. III. Title. KD3628 .H37 2000 344.42'0793–dc21 99–056938 ISBN 0-203-46698-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-77522-8 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-23080-2 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-23081-0 (pbk) Contents List of Tables vii Preface ix List of Cases xiii Abbreviations xv 1 Introduction 1 2 Education and Redress of Grievance 19 3 Discipline in Schools: Social Theory and Law 42 4 Exclusion in Practice: The Social Context to School Exclusion 58 5 School Exclusion: The Legal Framework 80 6 The Governing Body’s (Discipline Committee’s) Reinstatement Meeting 97 7 The Exclusion Appeal Panels 113 8 Bringing Appeals: Access to the Arrangements 131 9 Exclusion Appeal Hearings 144 10 Conclusion 169 Appendix—DFEE Guidance on Procedures for Excluding a Pupil (Including Appeals) July 1999 175 Notes 188 References 197 Index 203 v Tables 1.1 Numbers of permanent exclusions from schools and numbers of appeals against permanent exclusion in England, 1990–91 to 1997–98 2 2.1 Principal education redress mechanisms, England and Wales 22 7.1 Pre-SSFA 1998 views of panel members, governors, head teachers and LEAs on whether a more independent appeal system was needed 118 7.2 Age profiles of appeal panel members in survey 123 7.3 Views on whether exclusion appeal panels should have lawyer chairs 126 8.1 Social class of parents: appellants and non-appellants 138 8.2 Ethnicity of children whose parents were appellants and non-appellants 139 8.3 Parents who obtained advice following their child’s exclusion from school 140 8.4 Parents’ evaluation of the quality of the advice received following their child’s exclusion 141 vii Preface Not all parents whose child is permanently excluded from school want to challenge the school’s decision. Some, for example, feel that their child’s needs were not being met at the school from which they have been excluded or in any event believe that a fresh start in another school would be beneficial. However, many others are very dissatisfied with the decision and recognize the inescapable fact that exclusion from school can be a particularly serious matter for the child as well as for the parents themselves, and are prepared to fight it. For those willing to mount a challenge and seek their child’s reinstatement there is a two-stage process in England and Wales involving review by the governing body (or its discipline committee) and, if the decision is one not to reinstate, an appeal to an appeal panel. Under changes introduced by the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, the appeal panels have become more independent from schools and LEAs, and in theory parents should now be able to feel more confident that their child’s case (or rather theirs, because education law denies the excluded pupil the right to appeal in his or her own right until aged 18) will be dealt with fairly. Yet there are reasons to believe that a much more radical reform is needed. The appeal system, which was set up in 1987, has attracted some controversy in recent years. The teaching unions, including the NAHT and the NASUWT, have called for its abolition. It seems that, in their view, the more independent the system gets, the more detached it is from the school situation that should inform decisions about whether a child who misbehaves and disrupts the education of others should remain excluded. Other voices, notably the membership of the Council on Tribunals, have called for the appeal system not only to be made more independent but also judicialized, with lawyer chairs. Moreover, at a time when human rights are being enshrined within our national law under the Human Rights Act 1998 and there is ever increasing recognition of the need to acknowledge and protect the independent rights and interests of children, it would seem to many to be inconceivable that this important redress mechanism should be removed, particularly when over 12,000 children each year are currently being permanently excluded from schools in England. ix
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