Request By:
Mr. Andrew Robinson
Assistant Dean for Administration
College of Education
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky 40506
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; Robert L. Chenoweth, Assistant Attorney General
You have asked the Office of the Attorney General to advise you concerning a particular aspect of school law as it applies to a practice by some school officials in the Jefferson County School District. You stated in your letter:
"Currently, when a student is suspended for disruptive behavior in a Jefferson County School, he/she remains at the school building instead of being sent home. Although these students are not in classes during the suspension period and may or may not be doing school work during this time, it is my understanding that the school may still collect Average Daily Attendance allotment monies as though the student were in class."
You have specifically asked if it is lawful for a school district to collect average daily attendance monies for those students who are officially suspended but who are nonetheless compelled to stay at the school building.
The school law concerning suspension and expulsion is KRS 158.150. We have discussed this statute, as concerns a situation such as you have presented, in OAG 73-305, copy attached. The thrust of that opinion was that "'in school suspension' is a contradiction in terms and not within the disciplinary procedures authorized by statute." We reiterate that conclusion here. We would further add that if the "in school suspended" child is not being afforded any alternative educational program and school counseling, the child is legally absent from school and may not be counted for purposes of figuring average daily attendance.