Last Friday's ruling in a North Carolina court that schools that suspend students for extended periods must still provide an education is both a reasonable interpretation of most state constitutions' right-to-education clause and an important philosophical and policy point. Here's the way I'd put it: you have a right to an education, if not necessarily where you started schooling. You have a right to a minimal amount of contact with schools, if not continuous or with the same teachers all the time. We won't hamstring school officials with a requirement to make up every day missed for a short-term suspension, but we do not approve of schools that simultaneously suspend a student from her or his current school for extended periods and then refuse to provide education in that time.
Next up in the wish-list: inserting sanity and common sense into "zero tolerance" policies.
I approve. Definitely. That’s one reason we have Moodle set up. On the other hand, over the last three weeks, three kids that were sent to the “alternative school” failed to show up there, took an extra day of suspension, than returned to school. *groan* Thank goodness they aren’t all mine to worry about. But in general, kids that are out for disciplinary issues aren’t there for education. I’m sure that doesn’t happen in college. /sarcasm
Seriously, it is a problem even in the workplace outside of education. The range of human behaviour is both awe-inspiring and depressing.