Section 16-NEW - [Newly enacted section not yet numbered] When students may be excluded from classroom(a) Beginning with the 2024-2025 school year, a teacher may exclude from his or her classroom any student who does any of the following: (1) Engages in disorderly conduct.(2) Behaves in a manner that obstructs the teaching or learning process of others in the classroom.(3) Threatens, abuses, intimidates, or attempts to intimidate an education employee or another student.(4) Willfully disobeys an education employee.(5) Uses abusive or profane language directed at an education employee.(b)(1) Any student excluded from the classroom pursuant to subsection (a) shall be placed under the control of the school principal or his or her designee, provided that the excluding teacher has followed his or her own approved classroom management plan. The excluded student may be readmitted to the classroom only after the principal, or his or her designee, provides written certification to the classroom teacher that the student may be readmitted and specifies the type of disciplinary action, if any, that was taken.(2) If the principal, or his or her designee, finds that disciplinary action is warranted, he or she shall provide written and, if possible, telephonic notice of the action to the student's parent or guardian.(c) If a student is excluded from the classroom pursuant to subsection (a) two times in one semester and all other reasonable means of classroom discipline have been exhausted, the student may be readmitted to the classroom only if all of the following are satisfied:(1) The principal, teacher, and, if possible, the student's parent or guardian have held a conference to discuss the student's disruptive behavior patterns.(2) The principal informs the teacher of any course of discipline for the student going forward.(3) The student's parent or guardian has been informed of the course of discipline.(d) Following a student's readmittance to the classroom pursuant to subsection (c), if the student's disruptive behavior persists, upon the teacher's request, the principal shall mete out the maximum discipline provided for by the student code of conduct for the infraction, including, but not limited to, transfer to an alternative school that is approved by the local superintendent of education.(e)(1) If the student removed from the classroom pursuant to subsection (a) is in grades six through 12 and is removed for his or her disorderly conduct, interference with an orderly educational process, or obstruction of the teaching or learning process of others in the classroom, the student may not be readmitted to the referring teacher's classroom for at least the remainder of the school day. The principal must communicate with the teacher regarding the student before he or she may be readmitted to the classroom.(2) A student who is excluded for the remainder of a school day pursuant to this subsection for a total of three times in one 30-day period shall receive, as determined by the principal, in-school or out-of-school suspension, or may be recommended for placement in an alternative school, if one is available within the school district.(f) Beginning with the 2024-2025 school year, each local board of education shall adopt a policy establishing an appeal process that allows a teacher to appeal to the local board of education in both of the following scenarios: (1) If a principal refuses to allow a student to be excluded from the classroom pursuant to this section.(2) If a teacher believes the school principal has prematurely ended the exclusion of a student from the classroom pursuant to this section.(g) Each local board of education shall require each school to collect data related to any disciplinary action taken pursuant to this section. Each local board of education shall compile a report of the data collected from each school to the State Department of Education. The State Department of Education shall compile a report of the data collected from each local board of education and provide it to the Legislature no later than the first day of each regular legislative session.Ala. Code § 16-NEW (1975)
Added by Act 2024-409,§ 3, eff. 6/1/2024.