ABSTRACT
The exclusion appeal system has now been in operation for well over a decade. Despite the teaching union opposition referred to above (and in Chapter 1), it is well supported by schools, LEAs and parents. School exclusion is a serious
matter for the child and to deny a right to challenge the decision before an independent forum would constitute a most serious inroad in the human rights of the child. It would certainly constitute a breach of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which would shortly in effect be justiciable in the English courts as a result of the Human Rights Act 1998. As a result of this, and the recent incorporation of a reformed exclusion appeals system in the SSFA 1998, we do not believe that there is any serious political threat to the continuation of the appeal system alongside the even longer established mechanisms of complaint outlined in Chapter 2.
