A school exclusion is a sanction of last resort that can adversely impact a pupil’s life outcomes for many years after the event. The law relating to school exclusions is a complex tangle of public and regulatory law, anti-discrimination and human rights, statutory guidance, and (in relation to independent schools) principles of commercial contract and tort. It can be very difficult to know where to start, whether challenging a decision to exclude or defending one.
This book offers a practical guide to the law, and will serve as a useful source of reference for pupils and their parents, head teachers, governing boards of schools, local authorities and practitioners in this surprisingly complex and multidisciplinary area.
This second edition has been updated four years since the first. It considers an abundance of recent Upper Tribunal judgments on disability discrimination in schools, as well as the wider regulatory and public law framework, post-pandemic, with the law set out as it stands in October 2024.
