Student Discipline

Local school boards must adopt student codes of conduct that specify the circumstances under which students can be removed to disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEPs), suspended, or expelled. The code of conduct cannot violate the disciplinary provisions in the Texas Education Code but can establish rules where the code itself is either silent or allows for local discretion.

Each school district’s code of conduct must be posted and prominently displayed on every campus within a district or made available for review at the principal’s office.

The Texas Education Code requires that the code of conduct:

• Specify when students may be removed from class or campus, consistent with legal requirements
• Specify when a student can or must be removed to a disciplinary alternative education program (DAEP)
• Outline when a student may be suspended or expelled
• Specify whether consideration will be given to the student’s intent, prior disciplinary history, or disability, or whether the action was self-defense
• Provide guidelines as to the length of the student’s removal, suspension, or expulsion
• Provide appropriate options for managing student behavior
• Address parental notification requirements when a student is suspended, removed to a DAEP or expelled
• Prohibit bullying, harassment and making hitlists and ensure that district employees enforce those prohibitions

The Texas Education Code provides that a teacher can temporarily remove a student to the campus behavior coordinator’s office to maintain effective classroom discipline. Each campus is required to designate a “campus behavior coordinator” (CBC) who is “primarily responsible for maintaining student discipline.”

A teacher may remove a student from class and initially refuse to consent to the student’s return if the teacher can establish that the student:

• Has repeatedly interfered with the teacher's ability to communicate effectively with the students in the class or with the ability of the student's classmates to learn;
• Demonstrates behavior that is unruly, disruptive, or abusive toward the teacher, another adult, or another student; or
• Engages in conduct that constitutes bullying, as defined by Section 37.0832

A teacher may remove a student based on a single incident of the above behaviors.

Educators are immune from disciplinary proceedings for an action taken in good faith to remove a student from class or for reporting a violation of Chapter 37. Disciplinary proceedings include discharge, suspension, termination, nonrenewal or actions taken by the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC).

Once removed, the student’s parent or guardian must be notified of the removal by the teacher, campus behavior coordinator, or other appropriate administrator. Upon removal, the principal may place the student into another appropriate classroom, into in-school suspension, or into a disciplinary alternative education program as provided by Section 37.008.

After removal, the principal may not return the student to that teacher's class without the teacher's written consent unless a Placement Review Committee determines that such placement is the best or only alternative available and—not later than the third class day after the student’s removal from class—a conference has been held in accordance with Section 37.009(a). The teacher involved must be provided an opportunity to participate.

The student may not be returned to the class before the conference is held. The principal may not return the student to that teacher's class unless the teacher provides written consent for the student's return or a plan for the student to return to class has been prepared and discussed at the requisite conference.

A student may appeal a removal decision by the Placement Review Committee or Threat Assessment Team.

The removal provisions in the Education Code apply to disruption caused by a student. The law does not create a right for a teacher to remove a student because the students’ parents are disruptive.

The code provides a list of student misconduct that either allows or requires the student be removed from the student’s normal educational placement and placed in a disciplinary alternative educational placement (DAEP).

Mandatory removal to a DAEP is required when a student has engaged in:

• Conduct involving a public school and containing the elements of the offenses of false alarm/report or terroristic threat
• Serious misconduct on or within 300 feet of school property or while attending a school-related activity on or off-property, including:
  • Conduct punishable as a felony
  • Conduct that contains the elements of assault with injury
  • Selling, giving, delivering, possessing, using, or being under the influence of alcohol, a controlled substance or certain dangerous drugs, or selling or delivering e-cigarettes
  • Conduct containing the elements of an offense related to abusing a volatile chemical
  • Criminal public lewdness or indecent exposure
  • Conduct containing the elements of criminal harassment against a public school employee
• Conduct on or off school property against any school employee or volunteer that contains the elements of criminal retaliation or harassment
• Off-campus conduct for the student is receiving deferred prosecution for a felony offense, including deadly conduct, aggravated robbery, disorderly conduct involving a firearm, or unlawfully carrying weapons

Discretionary removal to DAEP may occur when students have:

• Engaged in conduct containing the elements of disruptive activities
• Possessed or used an e-cigarette (if not a first-time offense, the student must be placed in in-school suspension for at least 10 school days)
• Conduct occurring off-campus if there is a reasonable basis to belief the student engaged in certain felony offenses and if the continued presence of the student in the regular classroom threatens the safety of students or the teacher

Students may be suspended for no more than three school days at a time. Students must be expelled for a certain set of serious offenses (see list below). Additionally, students may be expelled for an alternate set of offenses occurring at any campus or at any school-sponsored event in the state. These offenses include sale of illegal substances, false alarm, persistent serious misbehavior while assigned to a DAEP, or terroristic threat.

Students may be expelled for the following offenses committed against other students whether the offenses occurred on or off campus: aggravated assault, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated robbery, murder, or criminal intent to commit murder. Local guidelines determine the length of the expulsion.

Students also may be expelled for assault resulting in bodily injury against a school district employee or a volunteer; use, possession, sale, or delivery of illegal drugs or alcohol; deadly conduct; or possession of a firearm if the activity occurred within 300 feet of school property.

When a student expelled from a previous district enrolls in a new district, the new district may continue the expulsion, place the student in a DAEP, or allow the student to attend regular classes.

Students who present a serious threat can be removed immediately to a DAEP or be expelled.

Offenses that require mandatory expulsion

On-campus conduct

• Firearm and weapons offenses
• Aggravated assault, sexual assault, arson, murder, attempted murder, indecency with a child, or aggravated kidnapping
• Felony offenses involving illegal drugs or alcohol
• Aggravated robbery
• Manslaughter
• Criminally negligent homicide
• Any of the above committed in retaliation against a school employee, on or off campus

On- or off-campus conduct

• Certain criminal activity in retaliation against a school employee or volunteer

In most cases, a student can be returned to a teacher’s class, even if the teacher has not consented to the return. There are exceptions to this general rule, however.

• If a teacher made a mandatory removal to a DAEP due to an aggravated assault, sexual assault, or aggravated sexual assault occurring on campus or at a school-sponsored event, the student may not be returned to the teacher’s class without that teacher’s written consent.
• If a student is removed for assaulting the teacher resulting in bodily injury, the student may not be returned to the teacher's class without the teacher's written consent.
• If a student is in the juvenile justice system for an act that occurred in class, the student may not be ordered back to the teacher’s class in which the offense occurred without that teacher’s written consent.
• If a teacher removes a student for serious or persistent disruptive behavior, and the teacher refuses consent for the student to return to class, the student may be returned to class without the teacher’s written consent only if the campus placement review committee determines the prior placement is the best or only available alternative and, within three days of the removal, a return-to-class plan is developed for the student and discussed in the legally required conference.

All the discipline laws apply to all students regardless of age, with some exceptions:

• Students 6 to 10 years old cannot be expelled from school except for carrying a firearm to school. For other expellable offenses, the district may continue to provide educational services to an expelled student under the age of 10 in a DAEP placement. Elementary students over the age of 6 may be removed to a DAEP but should not be mixed with non-elementary students.
• Students younger than 6 cannot be removed from class and placed in a DAEP.
• Students below grade three may not be placed in out-of-school suspension unless—while on school property or while attending a school-sponsored or school-related activity on or off of school property—the student has engaged in:
  1. Conduct that contains the elements of an offense related to weapons under Section 46.02 or 46.05, Penal Code;
  2. Conduct that threatens the immediate health and safety of other students in the classroom;
  3. Documented conduct that results in repeated or significant disruption to the classroom; or
  4. Selling, giving, or delivering to another person or possessing, using, or being under the influence of any amount of:
     1. Marijuana or a controlled substance, as defined by Chapter 481, Health and Safety Code, or by 21 U.S.C. Section 801 et seq.;
     2. A dangerous drug, as defined by Chapter 483, Health and Safety Code; or
     3. An alcoholic beverage, as defined by Section 1.04, Alcoholic Beverage Code.

Law enforcement reports to school districts

Law enforcement officials must notify a school district when:

• A student is arrested or detained for most felony criminal offenses;
• When a student is convicted or judged delinquent in the juvenile justice system for those same offenses; or
• When a student receives a deferred prosecution or deferred adjudication order.

When a student under the jurisdiction of a parole or probation office enrolls in a new district, the new district must be notified.

Principals’ reports to law enforcement officials

Any principal who has reasonable grounds to believe a serious crime (as specified in Chapter 37 of the Texas Education Code) has occurred on campus or at a school-sponsored event, or who has knowledge of any other criminal conduct for which a student may be expelled, must report that information to the district police department, if available, and to local law enforcement officials.

School officials’ reports to employees

• School districts must inform teachers if they have regular contact through classroom assignments with students who have engaged in expellable offenses or who have engaged in conduct constituting unlawful restraint, indecent exposure, assault, deadly conduct, terroristic threat, or organized criminal activity.
• Superintendents who receive required notification from law enforcement authorities must promptly notify all instructional and support personnel who supervise the student(s) named in the report.
• Principals who make required notifications to law enforcement authorities must promptly notify all instructional and support personnel who supervise the student(s) named in the report.
• School districts must notify any educator responsible for providing instruction to a student when the student is placed in a DAEP for misconduct.
• School districts must notify any educator responsible for providing instruction to a transfer student if the student was placed in the former school district's DAEP at the time of the transfer.
• The notified educators must keep the information confidential.

Corporal punishment generally means any disciplinary action that affects the body (corpus = body). When most people think of corporal punishment, they think of “swats” administered by an administrator or coach. The Texas Education Code has a specific definition of corporal punishment:

[Corporal punishment is defined as] the deliberate infliction of physical pain by hitting, paddling, spanking, slapping, or any other physical force used as a means of discipline. The term does not include:

1. physical pain caused by reasonable physical activities associated with athletic training, competition, or physical education; or
2. the use of restraint as authorized under Section 37.0021. [relating to reasonable and necessary restraint of special education students]

Texas Education Code §37.0011

What does Texas law say about corporal punishment? The Texas Education Code provides that each school district shall determine whether to allow corporal punishment. A local district allowing corporal punishment must allow a parent or legal guardian to “opt out” of the policy by providing a written and signed statement prohibiting the use of corporal punishment on their child.

All educators must know and follow their local district’s corporal punishment policy. In addition to negative employment consequences that can result from a violation of the policy, an educator can find themselves sued without the protections normally provided. Educators can be legally and financially liable if they have violated their local corporal punishment policy.

What discipline techniques are prohibited? 

Certain specific “aversive discipline techniques” are prohibited. These are defined in 37.0023 of the Texas Education Code as “a technique or intervention that is intended to reduce the likelihood of behavior reoccurring by inflicting on a student significant physical or emotional pain or discomfort.”

Many of the listed techniques, such as electric shocks or impairing a student’s breathing or circulation, are obviously improper. But some of the prohibited techniques are not so obviously wrong, so educators need to be aware of them: