Sent Down

Expulsion, also known as dismissal, withdrawal, or permanent exclusion (British English), is the permanent removal or banning of a student from a school, school district, college or university due to persistent violation of that institution's rules, or in extreme cases, for a single offense of marked severity. Colloquialisms for expulsion include being kicked out of school or sent down. Laws and procedures regarding expulsion vary between countries and states.

The practice of pressuring parents to voluntarily withdraw their child from an educational institution, termed off-rolling in the UK, is comparable to expulsion. Rates of expulsion may be especially high for students of color, even when their behavioral infractions are the same as those of white children. Certain disabilities, such as autism and ADHD, also increases the risk of expulsion, despite the fact that this constitutes unlawful discrimination in many jurisdictions.

By country

Ireland

In Ireland, a school must notify the local Educational Welfare Officer before expelling a student; they will then try and find a solution. The student cannot be expelled until twenty days after the educational welfare officer has been notified. Under Section 29 of the Education Act 1998 an expelled child's parent(s) may appeal an expulsion to the Secretary General of the Department of Education. The Child and Family Agency (Tusla) may also appeal an expulsion. If the department upholds the expulsion, a further appeal can be brought to the High Court.

In 2017–18, 29 primary school pupils were expelled in Ireland, up from 18 the previous year. In 2015–16, 195 secondary school students were expelled.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, exclusion and expulsion are methods for removing a student from a school for misconduct. Both are governed by sections 13 to 19 of the Education Act 1989, and the Education Stand Down, Suspension, Exclusion, and Expulsion Rules 1999.

The difference between exclusion and expulsion is that students aged under 16 are excluded, while students aged 16 and over are expelled. For students excluded, because they are under the minimum school leaving age, the excluding school is required to find an alternative school for the student to attend, or reinstate the student if another school cannot be found. For students that are expelled, the expelling school is not required to find an alternative school, as the student is over the minimum school leaving age.

Exclusion/expulsion cannot be directly done by the principal. It must be done through suspending the student, and requiring the school's board of trustees, or a standing disciplinary committee of the board, to independently assess whether or not the situation is serious enough to justify exclusion or expulsion of the student.

In 2009, exclusions and expulsions rates were 2.41 and 2.01 per thousand students respectively. Students were more likely to be excluded or expelled if they were male, of Maori or Pacific Island descent, and/or attended a school with a low (1-4) socioeconomic decile.

The most common reasons for exclusions and expulsions in 2009 were:
* Continual disobedience – 41.2% of exclusions/25.3% of expulsions
* Drugs incl. substance abuse – 14.2%/25.8%
* Physical assault on other students – 17.3%/16.8%
* Theft – 4.4%/8.9%
* Verbal assault on staff – 5.0%/2.6%
* Physical assault on staff – 4.5%/1.6%
* Weapons – 2.5%/2.6%
* Vandalism – 1.3%/2.6%
* Alcohol – 1.0%/3.7%
* Verbal assault on other students – 1.1%/0.5%

Arson, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, and smoking were the other main reasons for exclusion and expulsion recorded.

United Kingdom

State sector

If a student has been expelled from two schools, then any state school is legally allowed to refuse admittance of that student. Schools on special measures may refuse to admit a student who has been expelled from only one school. Therefore, a student who has been expelled from two schools might be totally removed from the state education system. As a result, it is rare for a pupil to be expelled or ''permanently excluded'' in the UK's state sector.

The exclusion of pupils is governed by the Education Act 2002.

The Secretary of State's guidance states that exclusion is a serious step. Exclusion should be used only in response to serious breaches of a school's discipline policy and only after a range of alternative strategies to resolve the pupil's disciplinary problems have been tried and proven to have failed and where allowing the pupil to remain in school would be seriously detrimental to the education or welfare of other pupils and staff, or of the pupil himself or herself.

In practice, a student can usually be subject to permanent exclusion for a total of five disciplinary breaches, for which the student does not have to receive formal warnings. Depending on his or her offence, a child can be excluded from the school system within any range of time after his or her misdeed. Though the teaching staff may recommend a pupil to be expelled, only the headteacher is legally empowered to exclude a student; he or she is not permitted to delegate that power to another person, but if he or she is ill or otherwise unable to perform his or her duties, another staff member may become the acting headteacher and inherit the power to expel students.

When excluding a student, the headteacher must inform the pupil's parents of the duration of the exclusion whether it be temporary or permanent, reasons for exclusion, and the procedures which a parent may take to make an appeal. The headteacher must also inform the local education authority of the circumstances surrounding permanent exclusions, fixed term exclusions exceeding five days, and exclusions which result in a student being unable to take a public examination.

=Reasons for permanent exclusion

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A headteacher might expel a student out for a first or one-off incident of appropriate severity.''Improving Behaviour And Attendance Guidance On Exclusion From Schools and Pupil Referral Units'', DCSF. September 2008. . For a single case of one of the following, a pupil can be permanently excluded for:
* A serious act of violence, including actual or threatened violence against a staff member or another student
* Possession of a weapon or any other hazardous item
* A sexual offence, including sexual abuse and assault
* A racially-aggravated offence
* Severe hazing of another student
* A drug offence, usually the supply of a controlled drug to other pupils. Possession of a small amount of a soft drug such as tobacco or cannabis is not normally considered sufficient grounds for expulsion
* Computer hacking

If a student has previous disciplinary records of violating other school rules and regulations, that too could result in expulsion. In these cases, expulsion is used as a final resort if the student has shown no signs of improvement in his or her behaviour despite disciplinary measures, and has failed to respond to a final warning. Some offences which may result in expulsion when repeated persistently include, but is not limited to:
* Defiance and rebellion against authority
* Vandalism
* Bullying
* Lying
* Cheating (including Plagiarism)
* Stealing
* Harassment
* False alarm, setting off a fire alarm when there is no fire or prank calling 999 (the British emergency hotline)
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