What does it mean if you get an "in school suspension"?

In-school suspension (ISS) is an alternative setting that removes students from the classroom for a period of time, while still allowing students to attend school and complete their work. Generally, a student assigned to in-school suspension spends the entire day in the designated ISS location, completing work submitted in advance by the student's teachers, while being monitored by school staff. [1]

One variation of in-school suspension requires the student to arrive at school at a designated time on a Saturday to serve out their punishment, rather than miss class time during the week.

http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_internal_school_suspension

In-school suspension is an in-house program to which a student may be assigned for a short period of time in lieu of out-of-school suspension (OSS). It is designed to counteract many of the negative effects of suspension. Instructional time can continue in the regular education classroom without interruption and special academic skills practice will be provided as a major component of the program. ISS overcomes the major shortcoming of traditional suspension because it does not deprive students of an educational experience because it is an environment that gives students opportunities to practice language arts, reading, mathematics, science, and social studies skills that they would normally receive in a traditional classroom setting.

http://www.childrensdefense.org/library/data/best-practices-in-school.pdf

Been there. Did that. It is in-the-school during the regularly scheduled class time, separate room class instruction. It is segregation from your peers without the at-home vacation.

W-A-M...you're not necessarily separated from your peers if you were partners in crime...at least in my school, they put all the 'criminals' together during in-school suspension. Therefore if the infraction included more than one perpetrator they were usually punished together...which defeated the whole purpose!

At our school, if there are "partners in crime," they have to serve their ISS on different days.