School & Education

Behavioral help at school

If your child is getting in trouble at school, you can ask the school for behavioral help. It is better to do this before there is a major incident resulting in a suspension or an expulsion hearing When the parties in a case present their sides of a case to a judge or other officer . Your child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) team must consider using positive behavioral supports to help your child. If your child has a 504 Plan instead of an IEP, ask the 504 team to meet and discuss behavioral supports.

The school can conduct a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) to learn more about your child's behavioral needs and put a behavioral intervention plan (BIP) in place. In addition to an FBA and BIP, behavioral supports at school could include:

• Direct service minutes with the school social worker, 
• Social and emotional goals implemented in the classroom, or
• Accommodations.   

Discipline and removals from school

If a student with a disability violates a school's code of conduct, the school can discipline them. This includes suspending your child for up to 10 school days. Generally, the school cannot suspend your child for more than 10 school days in a row without having a manifestation determination review (MDR). The school also has to hold an MDR if your child has been suspended for more than 10 school days in a school year, resulting in a pattern of removals. 

A "pattern" happens when:

• The series of removals totals more than 10 school days in a school year,
• The student’s behavior is similar to past incidents, and
• Additional factors show a pattern, such as the length of each removal, the total time of the removals, and how close together the removals happened.

Learn more about handling a suspension for a child with a disability.

There are times when the school can immediately remove your child from school and place them in an alternative school for more than 10 days without first holding an MDR. This is called an Interim Alternative Education Setting (IAES). Your child can be placed in an IAES for up to 45 days. This can happen if a student does any of the following while at school, on school premises, or at a school function:

• Has a weapon,
• Has, uses, or sells illegal drugs, or
• Physically injures someone severely.

Learn more about when a school may expel a student with a disability.

Learn more about school discipline for students with disabilities. 

School bus suspensions

A student may also be suspended from riding the school bus for misconduct on the bus. Under certain circumstances, a school bus suspension can be considered a suspension. If your child has been suspended from the school bus, read Children with Disabilities Eligible for Transportation for more information on your child’s rights.

The school should have known the student had a disability

Sometimes, a school district does not know that a student has a disability. In this case, it can discipline them the same way as other students.

The rules are different if the school district knows or should know about a student's disability. This is true even if the student does not have an IEP or 504 Plan. If the school should have known that the student has a disability, it must apply the same rules for students with IEPs and 504 Plans. That means the school must hold an MDR meeting before they can continue the discipline. 

The law says the school should have known the child had a disability if any of the following happened:

• The student's parent wrote a letter to someone at the school. The letter said that the student needs special education (an IEP or 504 Plan),
• The student's parent or another adult Any person 18 years old or over (such as a teacher, therapist, or doctor) asked for an assessment of the student to see if they qualified for an IEP or 504 Plan, or
• A teacher or other school employee noted the student’s pattern of behavior. They informed the Director of Special Education or another school administrator about it.