Last Updated on February 27, 2025 by Michelle Ball
By Michelle Ball, Sacramento California Expulsion, Special Education, sports/CIF, College, Education and School Attorney/Lawyer for Students since 1995
Many parents think that school expulsions will simply be issued IF a student did it. But are they right? Most expulsions have “secondary findings” which a school board or expulsion panel must make before they can expel. As such, an expulsion recommendation can be stopped if a parent can show these findings can’t be made.
What Are The Requirements to Expel Under Most Categories?
When a public school student is up for expulsion, there are certain things which must be proven. They can’t just be removed.
First, the underlying act(s) alleged have to be proven to have been committed by the student.
Second, the school has to show that those actions broke an education code section allowing expulsion.
For example, if the school alleges a student caused physical harm to another student, they may prove a fight occurred and the other student was hurt.
Sounds easy, right? Sure, but hold on– this is not all that is required. Many school districts operate under the presumption that if they prove these items, the student can be expelled, period. Not so fast– they also must prove the secondary findings.
What Are Secondary Findings?
With most expulsions (other than the BIG 5 mandatory expulsion offenses), a school district has to prove more than just an expellable act occurred.
They also have to prove something else they like to gloss over: the “secondary findings.”
At least one of these secondary findings must be proven to expel most students, (see California Education Code section 48915):
- Other means of correction are not feasible or have repeatedly failed to bring about proper conduct, OR
- Due to the nature of the act, the presence of the pupil causes a continuing danger to the physical safety of the pupil or others.
These are very very important for parents.
Why Do Secondary Expulsion Findings Matter?
These secondary findings (at least one of them) MUST be proven for a school district to expel any student not facing a Big 5 offense. If one of the secondary findings is NOT proven at the expulsion hearing, the school district cannot expel a student, EVEN IF they committed the underlying act that broke the rules! This is big, really big.
These have been lurking in the Education Code as long as I can recall, and I have been around a while. I have been arguing them for decades. However, it was not until 2022 that a court finally slammed a school district on them, reversing a student’s expulsion, for lack of secondary findings.
Beautiful.
The Case That Validated Secondary Findings ARE Required Prior to Expulsion
Student discipline attorneys don’t get a lot of truly great cases, but the Natomas Unified School District vs. Sacramento County Board of Education & IO (student) 86 Cal.App.5th 1013 (Cal Court of Appeals 2nd Dist. 2022) case really is a great one. It will help millions of students across California, as it gives the secondary findings their place in the sun.
In the “IO” case, the appellate court determined that the student could NOT be expelled regardless of committing an act that broke the rules, as neither of the secondary findings were proven.
At IO’s hearing, the school district focused only on the alleged wrongful act: bringing bb guns with an orange tip to school, showing them to friends, and shooting an empty one at the ground. The school district attempted to focus on this act only, and the expulsion panel disallowed certain parental evidence. The court rejected this narrow approach.
Instead, the court found that the school district should have focused on the whole student, and NOT just the single event involved. As the District did not prove that the student presented a continuing danger, IO’s expulsion was reversed.
This is a very helpful case for students facing expulsion.
Make Them PROVE It
Parents need to make sure school districts actually prove the secondary findings (as well as the alleged wrong) before expelling a student. If the prohibited act is proven, but not the secondary findings, parents might be able to end the expulsion there. At the very least, the student will likely have a basis for appealing the expulsion decision.
Student attorney Michelle Ball has been assisting students since 1995. As a lawyer in the Sacramento area, she supports families across California. She can assist in CA towns such as Chico, Sonora, Cool, Lincoln, Galt, Chula Vista and many others, wherever students may need her.
Suggested reading: School Expulsion: What Happens Before and After A Recommendation
