Can I challenge my child's permanent exclusion from school?

A permanent exclusion takes your child off the school roll. It can only be imposed by the headteacher, as a last resort, in response to a serious breach of the behaviour policy or where allowing the pupil to remain would seriously harm the education or welfare of others. The decision must be lawful, reasonable and proportionate — and there is a formal process for testing whether it was. Since 2012 academies and free schools follow the same process as maintained schools.

The two review stages

• Governing body review. Required for every permanent exclusion, and the discipline committee must meet within 15 school days of the exclusion notice. You get at least five school days' notice and can attend with a supporter. Send a written representation in advance: a chronology, evidence the school misjudged the incident, any provocation, SEN that was not taken into account, and why the sanction was disproportionate. Many exclusions are overturned here.
• Independent Review Panel (IRP). If the governors decline to reinstate, request an IRP in writing within 15 school days of their written decision. The panel — a legally trained chair, a serving or former headteacher and a governor — applies judicial review principles and can uphold the decision, recommend reconsideration, or quash it and direct reconsideration. It cannot reinstate your child itself, but a refusal to reinstate triggers a £4,000 "reinstatement adjustment" to the school's budget. Ask for a SEND specialist adviser to attend if your child has SEN.

Disability discrimination is a separate route

If your child is disabled within the Equality Act 2010 definition, the exclusion may itself be unlawful discrimination, and you can claim in the SEND Tribunal within six months of the exclusion. Such claims often run alongside an IRP because they test different things — procedural fairness against discrimination. They are strongest where the behaviour was a manifestation of the disability, where the school failed to make reasonable adjustments first, or where it never considered the disability at all. A child on SEN Support without an EHCP has exactly the same Equality Act protection.

Meanwhile your child must still be educated: for a permanent exclusion, alternative provision starts immediately under the local authority's duty in section 19 of the Education Act 1996. Provision is of variable quality, so challenge poor alternative provision through the council's complaints procedure and then the LGSCO. Free advice is available from Coram Children's Legal Centre on 0300 330 5485 and from IPSEA.