Kennedy-King College (City Colleges of Chicago): Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Kennedy-King College?

Kennedy-King College is a public community college at 6301 South Halsted Street, at the gateway to Englewood — a Predominantly Black Institution and growing Hispanic-Serving Institution, with satellite sites at the Washburne Culinary & Hospitality Institute and the Dawson Technical Institute. It is one of the seven City Colleges of Chicago that form Community College District No. 508, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, and its discipline rules are district-wide. The thing to know is how fast a case moves: a complaint starts as a Security Incident Report completed with a campus security officer, and once you are notified, the district code gives you “no later than two (2) academic days” to put your side in writing.

Kennedy-King College is a public community college, so two bodies of law apply on top of its own policies. The first is constitutional due process: the college is a state actor, and Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), requires notice of the charge and a meaningful chance to respond. The second is the deference courts give genuine academic judgment — Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78 (1978), and Regents of the University of Michigan v. Ewing, 474 U.S. 214 (1985). In the Seventh Circuit a due process claim also needs a protected interest: there is no free-standing property interest in a public education, and a student has to point to a specific promise the college made — Charleston v. Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois at Chicago, 741 F.3d 769 (7th Cir. 2013).

Illinois law treats a community college differently from a state university, and the difference matters. A community college district is a local public entity, not the State: it falls under the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, 745 ILCS 10/1-206, not the Court of Claims Act, so a breach-of-contract claim against it is brought in circuit court — see Luciano v. Waubonsee Community College, 245 Ill. App. 3d 1077 (1993). Review of the board’s disciplinary decision does not run through the Administrative Review Law, which the Public Community College Act does not adopt for these matters; the route is a common-law writ of certiorari (or mandamus) in the circuit court — Maas v. Board of Trustees of Community College District No. 529, 94 Ill. App. 3d 562 (1981). For the City Colleges, that district is Community College District No. 508, and Inwang v. Community College District No. 508, 117 Ill. App. 3d 608 (1983), confirmed that the district board’s action is reviewable by mandamus or certiorari rather than under the Administrative Review Act. And in federal court the district is not an arm of the State and has no Eleventh Amendment immunity — Hostrop v. Board of Junior College District No. 515, 523 F.2d 569 (7th Cir. 1975) — so under Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978), it can be sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 where its own policy or custom caused the constitutional violation.

A federal claim arising at Kennedy-King College is filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois — Cook County sits in its Eastern Division under 28 U.S.C. § 93(a), and the statute fixes the places of holding court for that division at Chicago and Wheaton. I am a member of the general bar of that court, admitted on my Florida license under its Local Rule 83.10, which opens the general bar to an attorney in good standing before the highest court of any state. That means a Title IX, Section 504, ADA or due process complaint for a Kennedy-King College student is one I file and litigate under my own name, with no pro hac vice motion. The Northern District abrogated its local-counsel designation rule in July 2023, so a member of its bar with no office in the district no longer has to designate local counsel. One limit, stated plainly: the court keeps a separate trial bar, and under Local Rule 83.12 a general-bar member who is not on it — that is me — appears alone in everything except testimonial proceedings, meaning evidentiary hearings and trial, where a trial-bar member must sit as advisor unless the judge grants the rule’s narrow waiver.

Two academic days, and what counts as a day

At Kennedy-King a complaint is made by completing a Security Incident Report with a Safety and Security officer, and the report goes to the Associate Dean of Student Services as conduct officer. Under §8.40 of the City Colleges Academic and Student Policy manual (March 2026), you are then entitled to written notice of the specific violations alleged and to present your version of the facts in writing within two academic days. Academic days are “week days, excluding holidays, when classes are in session.”

Next comes a pre-hearing meeting at which your rights are explained and you sign a Due Process Rights form; the hearing date must reach you in writing within two academic days of that meeting. Kennedy-King’s 2026 Annual Security Report adds that written charges come at least 24 hours before the hearing. Be careful with resolution offers: an Informal Resolution Agreement requires you to admit the violation and waive the hearing and the appeal, and a consensual resolution “is final and may not be appealed.”

The district’s interim suspension rule contradicts itself. The policy lets the Dean of Student Services suspend you pending the hearing “up to fifteen (15) academic days”; the procedures describe “up to five (5) days suspension pending the hearing”; and the policy separately gives an interim-suspended student the right to a hearing “within five (5) academic days of the start of the suspension.” If you are suspended, the five-day hearing right is the one to hold the college to.

The hearing, the appeal, and a misprint worth knowing

A committee of at least five members — including two administrators, a faculty member and a student — hears the case. You may testify, present witnesses and question adverse witnesses, and the committee may not rely on a statement against you unless you had a chance to rebut it. You may bring one observer, who may not speak, and you present your own case; failing to appear without just cause forfeits the appeal. The manual states no standard of proof, but Kennedy-King’s security report says the recommendation rests on the preponderance of the evidence. The President decides within five academic days and may reduce, but not increase, the sanction.

A suspension over five academic days, a dismissal or an expulsion may be appealed within ten academic days of receiving the President’s decision, and the Provost’s decision is final. Quote the grounds from the manual, not from the security report: Kennedy-King’s 2026 report misprints one ground as “There was sufficient evidence to establish responsibility,” where the policy says insufficient. A student dismissed or expelled for discipline may petition for readmission only after five years.

Sexual misconduct goes to the district EEO Office, within 180 days. For sexual misconduct, the federal rule is the 2020 Title IX regulation: the 2024 rule was vacated nationwide on January 9, 2025, in Tennessee v. Cardona, and on September 29, 2026 the Department of Education formally repealed it and restored the pre-2024 text (91 Fed. Reg. 61,308). The district’s June 2025 policy provides a live video hearing at which each party’s advisor cross-examines from pre-screened questions.

Programs that screen you before every rotation

The district code hands clinical and practicum misconduct to “separate clinical program policies” that “may result in dismissal of a student from a program,” and two Kennedy-King programs make that real. The new Licensed Certified Professional Midwifery degree, offered at no other City College, places students at birth centers, health facilities and private homebirth practices and requires “a criminal background check and drug screening test before or during each rotation”; its first cohort starts in spring 2027, and it publishes no program handbook yet. The Basic Nursing Assistant program, which the college says holds classes on campus from fall 2026, requires a clear Health Care Worker Background Check and a negative ten-panel drug screen. Either way, a failed screen can stop a placement before any hearing — the moment for clinical-removal advice is the day it happens.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet: comparing what Kennedy-King did with what the district rules require; writing the statement and any appeal on the grounds the policy recognizes; keeping Title IX, Section 504, ADA and FERPA issues in the record; and finding comparators, since a sanction far beyond what similar cases drew is persuasive.

Two moves are specific here. Ask for the Security Incident Report itself: it is usually the first written account, made closest to the events. And if you are suspended pending a hearing, insist in writing on the five-academic-day hearing the policy promises rather than the longer outer limit.

The limit: a conduct hearing is not a trial. There is no discovery, no rules of evidence, and the college decides first — so the written record built now is the one a court will review.

The one Illinois statute that gives you procedure

Illinois has no general statute setting notice periods, hearing formats, standards of proof or appeal rights for college students. The Illinois School Code, 105 ILCS 5, has a detailed suspension and expulsion scheme, and it applies to elementary and secondary schools, not here. The exception is the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act, 110 ILCS 155, and it is a real one. It reaches every higher education institution in the state — public universities, community colleges, and private not-for-profit and for-profit institutions alike — and it requires timely written notice of the allegations to all parties, an investigation that is adequate, reliable and impartial, written notice of the outcome, and appeal rights. It requires the school to make confidential advisors available, trained to a statutory standard and kept separate from the people deciding the case. Both parties are entitled to an advisor of their choice, and that advisor may be an attorney — although the institution may limit how far an attorney-advisor participates in a hearing, which is why Kennedy-King College’s own rule on that — the district rule set out above — still governs what your lawyer may do in the room. The standard of proof is preponderance of the evidence, applied the same way to both sides.

What to do first

1. Write your statement within two academic days of the notice, and ask for more time in the same email.
2. Request the Security Incident Report and any witness statements in writing. The college has 45 calendar days to produce records, so do not wait for them before filing.
3. If you were suspended pending a hearing, note the start date and count five academic days.
4. In a clinical program, get the reason for any removal or failed screen in writing.
5. Keep the March 2026 manual as a dated PDF. My Illinois student defense page covers other schools.

One honest caveat about geography. Illinois has three federal districts. I am admitted to two of them, the Northern and the Southern. A federal claim arising at a school in Springfield, Peoria, Champaign-Urbana or the Quad Cities falls in the Central District; I am not a member of that bar, and those matters I handle with local counsel in that district or by pro hac vice admission. Appeals from the Northern District go to the Seventh Circuit, which keeps its own bar; my appellate admission is in the Eleventh. I say so before a retainer rather than after.

Where I am licensed. I am licensed to practice law in Florida. I am admitted to the bars of the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida, the District of Colorado, the Northern and Southern Districts of Illinois, the District of Nebraska, the District of New Mexico, and the Western District of Wisconsin, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Federal court admission is not a license to practice the law of the state in which the court sits. I am not licensed in Illinois and do not advise on Illinois state law or appear in Illinois state court.

Other schools in the Northern District of Illinois

Every college writes its own conduct, academic-standing and appeal rules, and the deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other community colleges in the Northern District of Illinois:

• Kishwaukee College
• Malcolm X College (City Colleges of Chicago)
• McHenry County College
• Moraine Valley Community College
• Morton College
• Oakton College

Common questions about Kennedy-King College student cases

How long do I have to respond to a conduct complaint at Kennedy-King College?

Two academic days after you receive the complaint notice, under §8.40 of the district policy. Academic days are weekdays, excluding holidays, when classes are in session. The response goes into the record the committee reads, so treat it as your first argument. If you need more time, ask in writing within the two days.

Can Kennedy-King College suspend me before my hearing?

Yes, if the pre-hearing meeting indicates a substantial threat to the college community. The district documents disagree on how long: the policy text says up to fifteen academic days, the procedures say up to five days. The policy also gives an interim-suspended student the right to a formal hearing within five academic days of the start of the suspension. Ask for it in writing.

How long do I have to appeal at Kennedy-King College?

Ten academic days from receiving the College President’s decision, for a suspension longer than five academic days, a college dismissal or an expulsion. It must rest on listed grounds such as an unfair hearing or insufficient evidence. The Provost decides within ten academic days, and that decision is final.

Can I bring a lawyer to my Kennedy-King College hearing?

You may bring one observer to a conduct hearing, but observers may not speak and you present your own case. In a Title IX case the district policy allows one advisor of your choice, who conducts cross-examination. A lawyer’s most useful work comes before the hearing: the statement, the evidence request, the appeal.

What standard of proof does Kennedy-King College use?

The district manual does not state one for conduct hearings. Kennedy-King’s 2026 Annual Security Report says the hearing committee’s recommendation is based on the preponderance of the evidence — more likely than not — which is also the standard in the district’s Title IX policy.