Parents enrolling their children in charter schools may not realize that they and their children are entering a realm ungoverned by New York City’s school discipline code.

In many charter schools, students as young as kindergarten age can be suspended or expelled for minor disciplinary problems, according to a recent report by Advocates for Children of New York.

The nonprofit advocacy organization reviewed the discipline policies of 164 New York City charter schools and found that most allowed the school to suspend or expel students for any violation of the school’s code of conduct, no matter how minor.

This is in stark contrast to the DOE code, which has a range of allowed penalties for each of five different levels of misconduct. Students who fail to be in their assigned place, for example, may get penalized with a parent conference or loss of extracurricular privileges.

Student disciplinary policies at charter schools have come under greater scrutiny recently as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and charter proponents push for the state to raise the cap on the number of charter schools.

A UFT report this year found that charters have far higher suspension rates than public schools. At Harlem Success Academy 1, the number of suspensions equaled 27 percent of enrollment in 2011–12. That is 27 times the 1 percent suspension rate in public schools in District 3 on Manhattan’s West Side including Central Harlem.

Charter schools are supposed to follow certain rules, primarily federal regulations, regarding student discipline. But the advocacy group’s report found that some charter schools violate students’ rights under both the state and U.S. constitutions to have a hearing prior to a suspension.

One bill pending before the state Legislature would explicitly require charters to grant students due process prior to suspension.

“Charter schools need to have discipline policies that are transparent to parents and the public and that follow state and federal laws and guidelines,” said Miles Trager, the UFT’s coordinator of charter school services and negotiations.