Board of Education v. Sacramento County Board of Education

Education Code section 48918, subdivision (a) requires school boards that delegate expulsion hearings to an administrative panel to make a decision whether or not to expel a pupil within 40 schooldays after a recommendation for expulsion is first made. In this case, following an administrative hearing on an appeal by the pupil, the Board of Education of the Sacramento City Unified School District (School Board), convening after a summer recess, voted to expel.

The Sacramento County Board of Education (County Board) overturned the School Board’s decision. The County Board ruled that the School Board’s failure to expel the pupil within 40 schooldays deprived the School Board of jurisdiction; consequently, it reversed the expulsion order. The reversal was upheld by the superior court, which denied the School Board’s petition for writ of mandate.

On this appeal, we will determine that the 40-day period under Education Code section 48918 allotted to the School Board to make a decision on expelling a pupil is directory, not mandatory in the jurisdictional sense. (All further unspecified statutory references are to the Education Code.) We will reverse with…