IDEA-PART
B FINAL REGULATIONS
DISCIPLINE PROCEDURES
(March 1999)
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One
of the difficult aspects of providing transportation
service to students with disabilities is proper discipline
on the bus. In Part B of the 1997 amendments to IDEA,
the U.S. Congress gave clear direction in this sensitive
area.
Following
Congressional lead, at the 13th National Conference
on School Transportation held in May, 2000, pupil
transportators adopted information from the amendments
in an effort to map acceptable industry practices.
The
discipline guidelines were published in the 360-page
Final Recommendations of the Conference titled the
National School Transportation Specifications &
Procedures, 2000 Revised Edition, pgs.
294-294.
Information
on where to obtain the Final Recommendations of the
Conference is provided at the bottom of this page.
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Introduction
Prior
to enactment of the IDEA Amendments of 1997, the statute only
specifically addressed the issue of discipline in a provision
that allowed school personnel to remove a child to an interim
alternative educational placement for up to 45 days if the
child brought a gun to school or to a school function. The
1997 Amendments incorporated prior court decisions and Department
policy that had held that:
| 1. |
Schools
could remove a child for up to ten school days at a time for
any violation of school rules as long as there was not a pattern
of removals; |
| 2.
|
A
child with a disability could not be long-term suspended or
expelled from school for behavior that was a manifestation
of his or her disability; and |
| 3. |
Services
must continue for children with disabilities who are suspended
or expelled from school. |
In
addition, the 1997 Amendments:
| 1. |
Expanded
the authority of school personnel regarding the removal of
a child who brings a gun to school to also apply to all dangerous
weapons and to the knowing possession of illegal drugs or
the sale or solicitation of the sale of controlled substances;
and |
| 2.
|
Added
a new ability of schools to request a hearing officer to remove
a child for up to 45 days if keeping the child in his or her
current placement is substantially likely to result in injury
to the child or to others. |
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The Amendments
also added new provisions that require schools to assess a
child's troubling behavior and develop positive behavioral
interventions to address that behavior, and that describe
how to determine whether the behavior was a manifestation
of the child's disability.
The final
regulations incorporate the statutory provisions described
above, and provide additional specificity on a number of key
issues:
Removals
of Up to Ten School Days at a Time
The regulations
clarify that school personnel may remove a child with a disability
for up to ten (10) school days, and for additional removals
of up to ten school days for separate acts of misconduct,
as long as the removals do not constitute a pattern.
Providing
Services During Periods of Disciplinary Removal
Schools
do not need to provide services during the first ten school
days in a school year that a child is removed.
During
any subsequent removal that is for ten school days or less,
schools provide services to the extent determined necessary
to enable the child to appropriately progress in the general
curriculum and appropriately advance toward achieving the
goals of his or her IEP. In cases involving removals for ten
school days or less, school personnel, in consultation with
the child's special education teacher, make the service determination.
During
any long-term removal for behavior that is not a manifestation
of a child's disability, schools provide services to the extent
determined necessary to enable the child to appropriately
progress in the general curriculum and appropriately advance
toward achieving the goals of his or her IEP. In cases involving
removals for behavior that is not a manifestation of the child's
disability, the child's IEP team makes the service determination.
Conducting
Behavioral Assessments and Developing Behavioral Interventions
Meetings
of a child's IEP team to develop a behavioral assessment plan,
or (if the child has one) to review the child's behavioral
intervention plan, are required only when the child has first
been removed from his or her current placement for more than
ten school days in a school year, and when commencing a removal
that constitutes a change in placement.
If other
subsequent removals occur, the IEP team members review the
child's behavioral intervention plan and its implementation
to determine if modifications are necessary, and only meet
if one or more team members believe that modifications are
necessary.
Change
of Placement; Manifestation Determinations
The regulations
provide that a change of placement occurs if a child is removed
for more than ten consecutive school days or is subjected
to a series of removals that constitute a pattern because
they cumulate to more than ten school days in a school year,
and because of factors such as the length of each removal,
the total amount of time the child is removed, and the proximity
of the removals to one another.
Manifestation
determinations are required only if a school is implementing
a removal that constitutes a change in placement.
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