How long are schools allowed to confiscate items from students?

According to this question and the corresponding answer, schools are legally allowed to confiscate items from students. This is not considered theft, as the intent is not to permanently take the item away from the student. My question now is, how long is a school allowed to confiscate items from a student? "Common Sense" would indicate something like until the end of the class, or the end of the school day - or more formally, until the student leaves the school building. However, I recall teachers confiscating phones until the end of the week, and even refusing to hand them back upon the parent's request, citing that "the student would just play on their phone again anyways". I can't imagine that this is legal, or that a teacher has the authority to confiscate an item for longer than necessary. I am mostly interested in answers regarding Austria, but answers regarding other jurisdictions are accepted as well. Furthermore, I am talking about "general" items in a student's rightful possession. This excludes things like cigarettes, alcohol, weapons, etc., which may by themselves warrant different procedures.

This is highly dependant on the jurisdiction and context. It can range from "till the end of the lesson" (for example a phone to discipline the pupil not to use it in class) over "Till the end of the school day" (for stuff that disturbs the classes a lot) to "Until the parents come to retrieve the item" (for example a knife or lighter). In some jurisdictions, it is also possible for school to confiscate items and hand them over to law enforcement if they happen to find them (for example drugs). Germany will differ from the UK from France from Poland or Estonia.

That depends on the jurisdiction and item in question. It is different in different countries. WHERE are you wanting to ask about? The EU has VASTLY differing laws, in the US it is entirely different again.

5 Answers 5

According to regulation 373/1974 § 4(4) (which I presume is still in force due being amended in 2020), confiscated items must be returned by the end of Unterricht (unsure of exact translation, either end of class or school day):

Gegenstände, die die Sicherheit gefährden oder den Schulbetrieb stören, dürfen vom Schüler nicht mitgebracht werden. Derartige Gegenstände sind dem Lehrer auf Verlangen zu übergeben. Abgenommene Gegenstände sind nach Beendigung des Unterrichtes bzw. der Schulveranstaltung oder der schulbezogenen Veranstaltung dem Schüler zurückzugeben, sofern es sich nicht um sicherheitsgefährdende Gegenstände handelt. Sicherheitsgefährdende Gegenstände dürfen nur dem Erziehungsberechtigten – sofern der Schüler volljährig ist, diesem – ausgefolgt werden, wenn deren Besitz nicht sonstigen Rechtsvorschriften widerspricht.

This translates to (translation by @MechMK1):

Objects, which are a threat to safety or disturb the school proceedings, may not be brought along by the student. Such objects have to be handed over to the teacher upon request. Such taken objects have to be returned after the end of the end of the lesson or the course, or the school-related event, as long as the object is not a threat to safety. Objects which are a threat to safety must only be handed over to the parents or legal guardians - or, if the student is of age, the student - if the ownership of said object is not unlawful.

Thanks to Vienna lawyer Dr. Johannes Öhlböck who wrote an article pointing me to the regulation.

I'm not fluent in German and I can't find an explicit definition of Unterricht in the associated laws. Google currently translates it as lesson, but Duden has a broader definition close to "scheduled, regular instruction by a teacher" and the Vienna city website claims cell phones can kept until end of day.

Interestingly during research I found a Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) article stating that in 2017, a Berlin administrative court allowed confiscation of a cell phone through a weekend.