And starting in September 2001, teachers will be able to suspend students for one school day. Programs, supports for suspended or expelled students Violent and disruptive behaviour in schools makes it impossible for teachers to give students the education they need and deserve. But students who have been expelled or suspended from regular classes still need an education and an opportunity to turn their lives around. Sending these students out on the street only puts the problem somewhere else. To help expelled students continue their education and turn their lives around, the Safe Schools Act makes it possible to require them to attend strict discipline or equivalent schooling programs, or satisfy an equivalent requirement, in order to re-enter the regular school system.
Some boards already provide alternative programs for suspended and expelled students.
Next winter, the Ministry of Education will fund a number of strict discipline schooling demonstration projects for students who have been expelled. These programs will help expelled students keep up in their studies and teach them life skills such as conflict and anger management, discipline and responsibility. By next winter, all school boards will be required to have supports in place to help suspended students return and succeed in the regular school program. These may range from offering a special course, such as anger management, to providing students with classroom assignments so they can keep up in their studies. School councils Parents, through their school councils, will be able to participate actively in their local schools in a number of areas, including the implementation of the provincial Code of Conduct at the local level, under a proposed regulation to be released this fall.