Challenging exclusions
Parents have the right to make their case about the exclusion of their child to the governing board.
For fixed-period exclusions where the exclusion does not take a pupil’s total number of school days of exclusion past five in that term, the governing board must consider any case made by parents. It cannot however make the school reinstate the pupil and is not required to meet the parents.
For all permanent exclusions, the governing board must consider within 15 school days of being told about the exclusion, whether the excluded pupil should be reinstated or not. This is the same for fixed-period exclusions where the pupil will miss more than 15 days in one term, or will miss a public examination (e.g. a GCSE) or a national curriculum test (e.g. a key stage 2 test taken at the end of primary school).
For a fixed-period exclusion that brings a pupil’s total excluded days to more than five but under 15 the governing board must consider reinstatement within 50 school days if the parent asks it to do this.
If the governing board decides not to reinstate the pupil who has been permanently excluded, parents can request an independent review panel to review the governing board’s decision.
Information on school discipline and exclusions are issued by the Department for Education.