Complaints connected with disciplinary decisions at a Georgian public school are governed by Articles 12 and 19 of the Law on General Education. Together these two norms create the complete legal regime of school discipline: Article 12 establishes the right of appeal, while Article 19 regulates disciplinary prosecution, sanctions and the procedure for their application. Compared with higher education this is a separate regime: the law names precisely who may impose which sanction, and strictly limits expulsion.
The right of appeal and compensation of damage
Under paragraph 1 of Article 12, the pupil, the parent and the teacher have the right, for the protection of their rights and freedoms, to appeal the unlawful and other illegitimate acts of the teacher, the school and the mandatur (school safety officer), and also to receive full compensation for the damage incurred. This norm is broad: it is not limited to disciplinary decisions — any illegitimate act is appealable, and the right to demand full compensation of damage is written directly into the law itself.
Paragraph 2 of Article 12 obliges the school to create an effective means of independent and impartial review of complaints. The same requirement, under the supplementary norm to paragraph 2, binds the mandatur service of the educational institution as well: it too must create an effective means of impartial review. The school thus contains two internal complaint channels.
The procedure of disciplinary prosecution and the system of sanctions
Under paragraph 2 of Article 19, the requirements established by the school's internal rules, the disciplinary prosecution and the sanction must be reasonable, justified and proportionate. Prosecution may be conducted only in the cases provided for by the internal rules and in the prescribed manner, through a proper and fair procedure; during it the school must explain to the pupil or the teacher the essence of the offence.
The hierarchy of sanctions is distributed precisely in paragraph 12 of Article 19: the decision to expel a pupil from a lesson is made by the teacher; the decision on temporary dismissal from school for up to 5 days is made by the school director; while dismissal for 5 to 10 days or expulsion from school is decided by the disciplinary committee by secret ballot. This distribution matters for the appeal as well.
A special guarantee lies in the supplementary norm to paragraph 12 of Article 19: it is impermissible to expel a pupil from school at the primary and basic levels. Expulsion, as a sanction, is admissible only at the secondary level and only by secret ballot of the disciplinary committee.