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Appeals against expulsion or suspension for a period or periods totaling not less than 20 school days in a school year
Published on
Last updated on
- 1. How to appeal if my child has been expelled from school
- 2. How to appeal if my child has been suspended from school
- 3. When to appeal
- 4. Appeal process
- 5. Appeal committee hearing
- 6. Appeal hearing attendees
- 7. Format for an appeal hearing
- 8. What an appeals committee considers when conducting an Appeal in respect of expulsion/suspension
- 9. Possible outcomes for an appeal
- 10. What happens if my appeal is not allowed
- 11. How to find out about a school’s admission policy and processes
- 12. Withdraw an appeal
- 13. Oral hearings held by video conference
Section 29 of the Education Act, 1998 provides for an appeal where a board of management, or a person acting on behalf of the board of management (normally the school principal) expels a student.
A section 29 appeal can be made online and all supporting documentation uploaded via www.section29appeals.gov.ie/
Alternatively you can download a section 29 appeal form and send together with all supporting documents by registered post to:
Section 29 Appeal Application Form for an appeal against expulsion or suspension for a period of 20 or more school days in a school year
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Section 29 Appeals Unit Administration Unit
Address:
Section 29 Appeals Unit Administration Unit, Friar’s Mill Road, Mullingar
, County Westmeath
, N91 H30Y
You must include a copy of the decision of the board of management confirming the expulsion with your completed appeal form.
Section 29 of the Education Act, 1998 provides for an appeal where a board of management, or a person acting on behalf of the board of management (normally the school Principal) suspends a student for a period or periods totaling not less than 20 days in a school year.
An appeal may not be made if the period or periods of suspension are less than 20 days in a school year.
A section 29 appeal can be made online and all supporting documentation uploaded via www.section29appeals.gov.ie/
Alternatively you can download a section 29 appeal form and send together with all supporting documents by registered post to:
Section 29 Appeal Application Form for an appeal against expulsion or suspension for a period of 20 or more school days in a school year
Download link for
Download
View the file
View
Section 29 Appeals Unit Administration Unit
Address:
Section 29 Appeals Unit Administration Unit, Friar’s Mill Road, Mullingar
, County Westmeath
, N91 H30Y
You must include a copy of the decision of the board of management confirming the suspension(s) with your completed appeal form.
If you wish to make an appeal you must do so in writing within 42 calendar days from the date of the decision by the board of management.
Following receipt of your Section 29 Appeal Form and associated documents, the Section 29 Appeals Administration Unit will contact you with a date for the hearing. This will normally be within 21 calendar days from the date of receipt of the fully completed Section 29 Appeal Form. A notification will also issue to the school in question advising them of the appeal and the date for the hearing. Both parties to the appeal (the appellant and the school) will be asked to submit any additional information that may be relevant to the appeal, including the names of those who will attend the appeal, by a specified date, normally 12 days prior to the hearing.
All information received will be shared with both parties to the appeal and the appeals committee, at least 3 days prior to the hearing.
Appeal committee members are appointed by the Minister for Education but the appeal committee is independent of the Department of Education. The panel of appointees include people with experience and knowledge of the education sector.
The parents and the student, where the student is aged over 18, can attend the hearing. Two members of the board of management may attend on behalf of the school, or one member of the board of management and the school principal. In addition each party can be accompanied at the hearing by two other people. The Educational Welfare Officer and the Special Educational Needs Organiser may also attend. Anyone accompanying either party to the appeal cannot make statements at the hearing unless the appeals committee gives them consent to do so.
In addition the appeals committee may invite persons with relevant expertise to attend and make statements at the hearing.
The names of all the attendees at the hearing will be notified to all parties prior to the hearing.
Introduction
Oral “face to face “physical hearings of appeals made under section 29[1] [a] [b] [c] [ii] of the Education Act 1998 as inserted by Section 7 of the Education [Admission to Schools] Act 1998, recommenced from November 2022.
The agreed published procedures relating to these appeals are available here:
Format
The oral hearing is held with the minimum of formality to ensure that all parties to the appeal are given a fair hearing.
While the oral hearing is not a legal setting, the result of the hearing has legal implications and for this reason, certain rules and procedures must be followed:
- The recording or partial recording of the appeal hearing is not permitted under any circumstance. Where it is found or alleged that a party has made such a recording, the appeals hearing shall be terminated by the Chairperson,
- Only parties which have received pre approval from the Department of Education may attend the appeals hearing,
- The parties to the appeal may not discuss the details of the appeal with any member of the Appeals Committee prior to or following the Oral hearing,
- Each member of each party to the Oral Hearing must give their verbal consent to adhering to the rules and procedures of an Oral hearing before the commencement of the Oral hearing.
Definitions
For the purpose of these guidance information the following definitions apply:
The Department:
This is the Section 29 Administration Unit of the Department of Education based in Mullingar who provide administrative support to the Section 29 Appeals Committee.
The Committee:
This is the three [3] persons independent appeals committee assigned to consider the appeal lodged under sections 29 (1) (a) and 29(1) (b) and 29 (1) (c) (ii) of the Act.
The Chair:
This is the Chairperson of the Section 29 Appeals Committee who will be hosting and directing the Oral Hearing of the appeal.
SENO / EWO
The Special Needs Organiser [SENO] is an employee of the National Council for Special Education whose responsibility it is to assess the educational supports that a student with special educational needs may have to attend school.
The Educational Welfare Officer [EWO] is an employee of Tusla who offer advice and guidance to parents who need support in ensuring that their child attends school regularly.
Appellant:
This means the parent/ legal guardian or the student themselves [if over the age of 18] who has lodged an appeal as against the decision of the Board of Management of a school.
Relevant Party:
This means any person or persons which is affected by the decision of the Board of Management the subject of the appeal such as the appellant, the school authorities the SENO and or the EWO.
Process
(a) Upon receipt of an appeal from an appellant the Department will contact all the relevant parties to advise them of the Appeal and to inform them that the appeal will be determined following an physical “face to face “ Oral hearing.
(b) Each of the relevant parties upon receipt of notification of a hearing shall within 5 working days reply to the email notification confirming the following:
-The names, roles email and telephone contact details of all persons they wish to attend the hearing,
-That each proposed attendee(s) is aware of and agrees with and will adhere to the processes and procedures of the Department Oral hearings,
- That each proposed attendee will not record the oral hearing.
(c) Upon receipt of the email confirmation from the relevant parties the Department will issue by email the date time and location of the Oral hearing,
(d) The email confirmation shall also advise that the Chairperson of the Appeals Committee is authorised to terminate the Oral Hearing if h/she is of the view that the procedures of the Oral Hearing have not been followed by any party.
Pre hearing
a) The Department shall confirm the attendees for an Oral hearing.
Due to the informal nature of the Oral hearing legal representation attending on behalf of the parties is not required.
b) All parties should ensure they attend the location of the appeal in sufficient time prior to the commencement of the Oral hearing.
c) Oral hearings commence at 11.00 am for a morning hearing and at 2.00 pm for hearings scheduled for an afternoon hearing.
d) The duration of the Oral hearing shall not exceed 2 hours in any one session without a comfort break being offered to the parties of the appeal>
e) The layout for the hearing shall be that all the parties to the appeal can hear what is being spoken and can also see who is speaking. A table will be provided for each of the parties to use and the layout of those tables will be dependent on the location.
During the hearing
f) The Oral hearing shall commence at 11.00 am unless otherwise notified. The Chair shall open the Oral hearing and shall host the hearing.
g) The chairperson of the appeals committee will open the appeal hearing by introducing the attendees and outlining the order in which each party to the appeal can present their case.
h) Both parties to the appeal will be permitted to present their case and will have the right of reply in relation to the matter under appeal.
i) The members of the appeals committee may question any or both parties to the appeal and any other attendees at the hearing.
j) The Educational Welfare Officer and /or the Special Educational Needs Organiser may also make presentations at the hearing if relevant to the appeal.
k) Hearings will be conducted with the minimum of formality consistent with giving all parties to the appeal a fair hearing.
l) The Chair shall seek and obtain from the parties verbal confirmation that all the parties are aware that the hearing is not to be recorded and that all communication at the hearing shall be through the Chair.
m) The Chair shall remind all the parties that the hearing may be terminated should any party fail to adhere to the procedures of the hearing.
n) The Chair shall commence the hearing when s/he is satisfied that all attendees have confirmed that they will adhere to the procedures.
o) The Chair shall permit one person to speak at any one time during the hearing and it shall be grounds to terminate the hearing should one party fail to adhere to this direction.
p) Prior to the conclusion of the hearing the Chair shall seek confirmation from each party that they have had been afforded a full opportunity to present their full case in support of the appeal under consideration.
After the Hearing
q) The Committee will following the hearing consider the information obtained at the hearing and also consider the documentation received from both parties to the Appeal and will proceed to make a preliminary decision on the appeal.
r) Subject to the detail of the appeal in question the Committee will require time to consider the information and to make their preliminary decision. Therefore, no decision is issued on the day of the hearing regarding the appeal.
s) Once the Committee has made their decision, the Committee will forward that decision to the Department who will issue the preliminary decision to the relevant parties inviting their comments and observations on the preliminary decision.
t) Parties have a total of 7 calendar days to forward, if they so wish, any comments or observations that they might have following the issue of the preliminary decision.
u) The preliminary decision cannot to be acted upon by either party as the appeal process has not been completed.
v) The Appeals Committee will then meet again to discuss and consider any observations or comments received following the issue of their preliminary decision. After such consideration the Appeals Committee will issue their final [and legally binding] decision. There is no guarantee that the preliminary decision and the final decision will be the same and again no action should be taken by either party until the final decision has been issued.
w) The issue of the Final Decision of the Appeals Committee concludes the appeal process and is legally binding on all parties.
The 1998 Act requires that the appeals committee must consider
- the nature, scale and persistence of any behaviour alleged to have given rise to, or contributed to the decision of the board, and whether or not such behaviour is confined to specific classes in the school concerned,
- the merit of any explanation offered by the student in relation to their behaviour,
- the reasonableness of any efforts made by the school to enable the student to participate in and benefit from education and if all reasonable efforts have been exhausted and any response by the student to any efforts made by the school to enable the student to participate in and benefit from education,
- the educational interests of the student concerned and the desirability of enabling him or her to participate in and benefit from education with his or her peers,
- the educational interests of, and the effective provision of education for, other students of the school and the maintenance of a classroom and school environment which is supportive of learning amongst all students in the school and ensures continuity of instructions provided to students,
- any evidence that the behaviour of the student has impacted on the safety, health and welfare of teachers, staff or other students of the school,
- the school’s code of behaviour under section 23 of the Act of 2000 and other relevant policies of the school, and
(i) in the case of the code of behaviour, whether it complies with section 23 of the Act of 2000 and any guidelines issued under subsection (3) of that section (i.e. Developing a Code of Behaviour: Guidelines for Schools, available to download at https://www.tusla.ie/uploads/content/guidelines_school_codes_eng.pdf
and
(ii) in the case of any other relevant policies, the extent to which each of them is implemented and is in compliance with
- any enactment that imposed duties on schools or their boards,
- any relevant guidelines or policies of the Minister,
the duties on schools or their boards imposed by or under any enactment,
- any guidelines issued by the Child and Family Agency under section 22(7) of the Education Act of 2000,
- any submissions made by the National Council for Special Education and/or the Child and Family Agency, and
- such other matters as the appeals committee considers relevant
The appeals committee will make a decision to -
(a) allow the appeal, or
(b) disallow the appeal, or
(c) refuse to hear or determine or refuse to continue to hear or determine an appeal.
Where a committee allows the appeal they will direct the board of management to readmit the student and remove the expulsion from the student’s record (expulsion case) or readmit the student and remove the suspension from the student’s record (suspension case).
The outcome of the appeal, including the reasons for the appeals committee’s decision, will be notified to both parties to the appeal, as soon as possible following the appeal hearing. A copy of the decision will also issue to the Child & Family Agency.
Tusla Education Support Services (TESS) is the legal body which can assist parents who are experiencing difficulty in securing a school placement for their child. TESS can be contacted at:Contact details for TESS in your region can be found at https://www.tusla.ie/tess/get-in-touch
Section 63 of the Education Act 1998 requires all boards of management to prepare and publish an Admission Notice each year. This notice must be published on the school’s website at least one week prior to the school commencing its annual admission process.
The Departments website provides further information in relation to the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 here
You can withdraw your appeal at any time during the process by emailing section29@education.gov.ie
Please note that Section 11 of the procedures for Appeals against expulsion or suspension for a period or periods totalling not less than 20 school days in a school year, do not apply at this time.
This guide is designed to assist parents/ guardians and school authorities in their participation of an appeal made under section 29[1] [a] [b] [c] [ii] of the Education Act 1998 which is heard using the video conferencing system called webex and should be read in conjunction with the published procedures for the different categories of appeals.
Valid from: The 17th October 2022 until further notice
Definitions: For the purposes of these procedures the following definitions apply:
The Act:
To mean the various sub-sections of Section 29 of the Education Act 1998 as inserted by Section 7 of the Education [Admission to Schools] Act 2018.
The Department:
This is the Section 29 Administration Unit of the Department of Education based in Mullingar who provide administrative support to the Section 29 Appeals Committee.
The Committee:
This is the three [3] persons independent appeals committee assigned to consider the appeal lodged under sections 29 (1) (a) and 29(1) (b) and 29 (1) (c) (ii) of the Act.
The Chair:
This is the Chairperson of the Section 29 Appeals Committee who will be hosting and directing the webex Hearing of the appeal.
SENO / EWO:
The Special Needs Organiser [SENO] is an employee of the National Council for Special Education whose responsibility it is to assess the educational supports that a student with special educational needs may have to attend school.
The Educational Welfare Officer [EWO] is an employee of Tusla who offer advice and guidance to parents who need support in ensuring that their child attends school regularly.
Appellant:
This means the parent/ legal guardian or the student themselves [if over the age of 18] who has lodged an appeal as against the decision of the Board of Management of a school
Relevant Party:
This means any person or persons which is effected by the decision of the Board of Management the subject of the appeal such as the appellant, the school authorities the SENO and or the EWO
Webex:
The name of the video conferencing system which is used by the Department of Education.
Introduction
Oral “face to face “physical hearings of appeals made under section 29[1] [a] [b] [c] [ii] of the Act have recommenced from the 2022/2023 school year.
In the event that an appellant does not wish to partake or attend a physical hearing of their appeal, the appellant may choose to have their appeal considered using video conferencing [Webex] and the Department will arrange for a webex hearing of the appeal.
These procedures for these appeals have not changed and can be viewed here:
In General:
1. The hearing by Webex is held with the minimum of formality to ensure that all parties to the appeal have a fair and equal opportunity to a fair hearing.
2. The hearing is not a legal setting but the result of the hearing has legal implications and for this reason, certain rules and procedures must be followed by the parties.
-The recording or partial recording of the appeal hearing is not permitted under any circumstances. Where it is found or alleged that a party has made such a recording, the appeals hearing shall be terminated by the Chairperson.
-Only parties which have received pre approval from the Department may attend the appeals hearing.
-The parties may not engage or attempt to engage with any member of the Appeals Committee prior to or following the Oral Hearing.
- The parties may not share the access details of the hearing with any person not authorised by the Department.
-Each member of each party to the Oral Hearing must give their consent to adhering to the rules and procedures of an Oral hearing before the commencement of the Oral hearing.
3. The webex hearings will start at 11.00 am for a hearing in the morning and at 2.00pm for a hearing scheduled for the afternoon.
4. The Board of Management of School may use the IT facilities of the school to access the hearing and therefore it is not permissible for a school to refuse to attend a hearing by Webex.
5. A hearing will not exceed 2 hours in duration without a comfort break being offered to the parties. A comfort break may be allowed by the Chairperson at any time during the hearing at the discretion of the Chairperson. During a comfort break there is no need to disconnect from the webex.
Process
(a) The Department will issue an email to all the parties to the appeal that the hearing of the appeal will be heard using webex and listing the proposed day and time for the hearing to take place.
(b) The parties to the appeal will have 5 working days to reply to the email to inform the Department of the following information:
- The availability of the parties to the proposed day and time of the hearing,
- The names and contact details of those persons who wish to attend the webex hearing of the appeal,
- That those attending the webex hearing are aware of the procedures of how the appeal will be conducted and their agreement to adhere to the rules and procedures of the hearing.
(c) The Department upon receipt of the confirmation will finalise the webex hearing and issue details to the parties of how they can access the webex hearing.
(d) This email will also inform all parties that the Chairperson of the Appeals Committee is authorised to terminate the webex hearing if h/she is of the view that the procedures of the Oral hearing have not been followed by any party.
Guide for hearings of an Appeal by Webex
Before the hearing
All parties to the Webex hearing should log onto the hearing using the log on details provided to them by the Department ten [10] minutes before the scheduled start of the hearing to check that their own connectivity is sufficient to participate in the hearing.
Where a party encounters access difficulty to the hearing they should phone or email the Department to advise the Department of the situation.
The email address is: section29@education.gov.ie
The phone number of the Department is: 01 8650 0588
During the hearing
2.0 The Hearing will start at 11.00 am or at 2pm.
2.1 The Chair will open the Hearing and shall host the hearing.
2.2 The Chair will ask all the parties present to confirm that they are aware that the hearing is not to be recorded and that all communication at the hearing shall be through the Chair.
2.3 The Chair will confirm the contact details of the parties in the event of a loss of connectivity.
2.5 The Chair will start the hearing when s/he is satisfied that all attendees are ready to proceed.
2.6 Persons attending the hearing may leave during the hearing if they so wish but have to inform the Chairperson if they wish to return to the hearing.
2.7 The Chair will only allow one person to speak at any one time during the hearing.
2.8 Before the hearing is finished the Chair will ask all the parties if they had sufficient time to present their full case on the appeal being considered.
2.9 When the hearing is finished, all parties to the hearing will leave the hearing by disconnecting from the hearing.
Loss of connectivity protocol
Where a loss of connectivity occurs during the hearing the following actions will be taken.
1. The chairperson will pause the hearing to establish who has lost connection and when did the loss of connection occur.
2. In the event of a loss by the appellant and or a representative from the school:
Upon discovery, the Chairperson to contact the person in question by phone or email to establish when the loss of connection took place and subject to the situation which presents, may have to repeat a segment of the appeal.
3. In the event that the Appeals committee form the view that as a result of the loss of connectivity on behalf of a relevant party to the appeal that the appeal cannot successfully continue without prejudice to one of the parties, the Chairperson is permitted to adjourn the hearing to a future day or to have the hearing re scheduled to a future day.
Post Hearing
1.0 The Committee will take all the information received and presented and will consider the appeal in accordance with the terms of the Act.
2.1 No decision will be issued by the Appeals Committee to any of the parties on the day of the hearing.
2.2 No additional information may be presented to the Appeals Committee or sent to the Department following the conclusion of the hearing and prior to the issue by the Department of the appeals committee’s preliminary decision.
2.3 The preliminary decision of the Appeals Committee will be sent by email to the parties by the Department once the Appeals Committee have made their determination.
Section 29 Appeal Application Form for an appeal against expulsion or suspension for a period of 20 or more school days in a school year
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Procedures for hearing and determining appeals under Sections 29(1)(a) and 29(1)(b) of the Education Act, 1998 (applicable to appeals made from 12th November 2020 onwards)
Appeals against expulsion or suspension for a period or periods totalling not less than 20 school days in a school year
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