Criteria for Court Review of Disciplinary Actions Taken by a Private School

The Second Department determined Supreme Court properly dismissed the petition seeking reinstatement of a student who had been expelled from a private school (Adelphi) for academic dishonesty.  The Second Department explained the disciplinary procedures required of a private school and the courts’ power to review the disciplinary actions taken by a private school:

“[P]rivate schools are afforded broad discretion in conducting their programs, including decisions involving the discipline, suspension and expulsion of their students” … . Judicial review of the actions of a private school in disciplinary matters is limited to a determination as to whether the school acted arbitrarily and capriciously or whether it substantially complied with its own rules and regulations … .

Here, Adelphi substantially complied with its own rules and regulations as set forth in its Code of Ethics in suspending and expelling the infant for acts of academic dishonesty. Adelphi was not required to hold hearings before its Disciplinary Committee before imposing discipline, and the petitioner’s further challenges to the procedures taken are likewise without merit. Further, the determinations that the infant had committed acts of academic dishonesty which warranted suspension and expulsion were not arbitrary and capricious. “When a private school expels a student based on facts within its knowledge that justify the exercise of discretion’, then a court may not review this decision and substitute its own judgment” … . Matter of Khaykin v Adelphi Academy of Brooklyn, 2015 NY Slip Op 00540, 2nd Dept 1-21-15