Pupil discipline: suspensions and expulsions: willful defiance.

Existing law prohibits a pupil from being suspended from school or recommended for expulsion, unless the superintendent of the school district or the principal of the school in which the pupil is enrolled determines that the pupil has committed a specified act, including, among other acts, disrupting school activities or otherwise willfully defying the valid authority of supervisors, teachers, administrators, school officials, or other school personnel engaged in the performance of their duties. Existing law prohibits the suspension of a pupil enrolled in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 3, inclusive, and recommending the expulsion of a pupil enrolled in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, for disrupting school activities or otherwise willfully defying the valid authority of those school personnel engaged in the performance of their duties. This bill, commencing July 1, 2019, would also prohibit the suspension of a pupil enrolled in grades 4 and 5 for disrupting school activities or otherwise willfully defying the valid authority of those school personnel engaged in the performance of their duties. The bill, commencing July 1, 2019, until July 1, 2023, would prohibit the suspension of a pupil enrolled in grades 6 to 8, inclusive, for those acts. The bill, commencing July 1, 2019, would also prohibit the suspension of a pupil enrolled in a charter school in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 5, inclusive, and recommending the expulsion of a pupil enrolled in a charter school in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, for those acts. The bill, commencing July 1, 2019, until July 1, 2023, would prohibit the suspension of a pupil enrolled in a charter school in grades 6 to 8, inclusive, for those acts. The bill would make other related changes.