Placement and School Discipline


Introduction

This issue of NASET's Discipline in Special Education series will cover placement and school discipline. The information provided comes from the Center for Parent Information and Resources. States, schools, and communities are understandably very concerned with school safety these days. Providing safe environments in which children can learn, free of drugs and violence, is one of education's top priorities. In keeping with that concern, it's not surprising that IDEA includes provisions that address the discipline of children with disabilities in school settings and at school functions. IDEA's discipline provisions were first introduced in the 1997 amendments and have been retained in the 2004 amendments, where they've been streamlined. Even so, they remain complex, spelling out the authority of school personnel to take disciplinary action when the student violating the code of conduct is a student with a disability. Under certain conditions, the actions that schools can take include removing students with disabilities from their current placement, placing them in an interim setting or, if appropriate, suspending or expelling them. This authority may be exercised only in specific circumstances, which we will discuss here.

To access the full issue of this month's Discipline of Students in Special Education Series, NASET members should login to view and or download a PDF file version.

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