Breaking the School to Prison Pipeline: What to Do if Your Child Has Been Suspended

Across British Columbia, schools are tightening their codes of conduct, not to create safer or more inclusive environments, but increasingly to justify suspensions and disciplinary action.

Under the School Act, every school board must establish a code of conduct to set behavioural expectations and maintain safety. Section 76(3) of the Act states that “the discipline of a student while attending an educational program made available by a board or a Provincial school must be similar to that of a kind, firm and judicious parent, but must not include corporal punishment.” It also authorizes boards to make rules about suspensions and to ensure educational programs remain available for suspended students. Principals are charged with overseeing “the general conduct of students, both on school premises and during school-sponsored activities.”

The Provincial Standards for Codes of Conduct Order, section 6(c), further requires that any consequences of unacceptable behaviour must:

• focus, whenever possible and appropriate, on restorative rather than punitive actions, and

• recognize that special considerations must apply to students with disabilities or diverse abilities if they are unable to comply due to an intellectual, physical, sensory, emotional, or behavioural disability.

In theory, these safeguards should ensure safety, support, and inclusion. In practice, many districts have weaponized their codes of conduct, tightening language and policies to remove children who do not fit the expected mould.

Instead of creating spaces where children can learn to navigate challenges, schools are sorting children into two groups: those who comply with the social order and those who do not. But schools should not exist to teach compliance. They should exist to nurture curiosity, autonomy, and belonging.

When children struggle to comply, the default response should never be exclusion. Suspensions and other disciplinary measures must be viewed through the lens of human rights, disability, and inclusion, not as moral failings or “behaviour problems.”

In British Columbia, every child under 16 has a legal right to an education. Suspension does not remove that right. The School Act requires that districts continue to provide meaningful educational programming for suspended students. That means your child should not be sent home without support or instruction. If this happens, it is not just a policy failure; it is a violation of law.

Under the BC Human Rights Code, schools have a legal obligation to accommodate students with disabilities to the point of undue hardship. Behaviour that stems from a disability cannot simply be punished. Schools must first consider whether proper supports, interventions, and accommodations were in place; whether staff actions escalated rather than de-escalated the situation; and whether the child’s voice was heard.

Section 6(c) explicitly states that special consideration must be given when a disability affects a child’s ability to comply. Yet in too many cases, this duty is ignored. Instead of adjusting the environment, schools remove the child, protecting the illusion of order while causing real harm.

This is not safety. This is not inclusion. This is social control.

MRI studies show that social exclusion activates the same neural pathways as physical pain. When a child is suspended or “informally sent home,” their brain registers it as harm. The impact is lasting: academic regression, disconnection from peers, school avoidance, and long-term distrust of education.

Children most affected by these tightened codes are those already marginalized: neurodivergent, disabled, racialized, or living with trauma or poverty. They are not struggling because they want to; they are struggling because the system was never built with their needs in mind.

Exclusion does not teach regulation. It teaches rejection.

The lack of public data on suspensions and expulsions in BC means exclusion often happens invisibly. The absence of transparency shields systemic harm.

When your child is suspended or excluded:

• Document everything. Keep written records of all communications, dates, and the impact on learning and well-being.

• Request accommodations and/or a review of the IEP is. The district has an ongoing duty to remove barriers and provide access to education.

• Appeal decisions. Under Section 11 of the School Act, parents and guardians have the right to appeal disciplinary decisions they believe are unfair or discriminatory.

• Insist on restorative approaches. Discipline must aim to repair relationships, not sever them.

Every school will have its own Code of Conduct, and every school district has a policy outlining how suspensions must be handled, including requirements to notify parents or guardians in writing and to ensure that the student continues to receive an education while suspended. Schools cannot simply send a child home and end their access to learning.

If a suspension or exclusion continues without clear communication or a plan for ongoing education, families can appeal to the Board of Education. If there is evidence that disability, race, or other protected characteristics under the BC Human Rights Code played a role in the exclusion or in the failure to accommodate, parents also have the right to file a complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal.

If your child has been sent home, excluded, or suspended, keep a written record. Note the emotional, academic, and social impact. Patterns of exclusion tell a story that numbers never will, one of a system designed to protect itself, not the child.

Exclusion hurts in ways that last long after the punishment ends. And every suspension, every “informal removal,” every missed day of school must be counted.

These patterns of exclusion are not isolated incidents. They are part of a broader system often described as the school-to-prison pipeline. When children are repeatedly suspended, excluded, or made to feel unwelcome, the message they receive is that they do not belong in school. Over time, this erodes trust, increases disengagement, and pushes vulnerable students toward systems of punishment rather than support. Breaking this pipeline begins with accountability: schools must stop criminalizing difference and start addressing the systemic inequities that drive exclusion in the first place.

We cannot allow codes of conduct to be twisted into tools of exclusion.

Demand transparency. Demand accountability.