Resident urges district to strengthen student suspension due process after spike in short-term suspensions

Steve Thompson, a resident, told the Barre Unified Union School District #97 board at its meeting that district student handbooks fall short of Vermont statutory and State Board of Education requirements for suspension procedures and called for the district to emphasize student due process rights.

Thompson cited state law and agency guidance, saying the teacher-appeal statute in Title 16 and provisions for student suspension hearings require certain notice and opportunity to be heard. He said the Vermont statutes (Title 16) and the Vermont State Board of Education rules require, for suspensions under 10 days, an informal hearing before a designated school official, notice of the charges, an explanation of the evidence, an opportunity for the student to tell their side, and a written decision to the parent.

Thompson also said the district’s publicly available student handbooks do not cite 16 V.S.A. §1161(a) or the State Board’s Rule 4311 and do not, in his view, reflect required elements such as a required meeting between administration and the student’s parent. He told the board the handbooks “fall short of the standard due process requirements required.”

Thompson presented numbers he said come from the Vermont Agency of Education showing the district issued 192 short-term suspensions in the 2023–24 school year—the highest in the state—and that the district’s discipline report for 2024–25 showed more than 400 short-term suspensions to date.

Thompson concluded, “I hope we can do something to demonstrate an emphasis on student due process rights, especially in light of the trends in our discipline data.” The board did not discuss the substance of the comment on the record during the public-comment period at that time.

Background: The resident referenced statutory and regulatory sources for suspension procedures in Vermont and compared those requirements to language in the district’s publicly posted handbooks. The board meeting moved from public comment into an executive session for personnel matters later on the agenda.