Discipline under the IDEA- Part 2
For the manifestation determination meeting, the first question is whether the disciplinary conduct was caused by or had a substantial relationship to the child’s disability? The second question is whether the act that was committed was a direct result of the district’s failure to implement the child’s IEP.
With respect to the first question, for example, if the student has ADHD (impulsivity), and the child was caught with a knife at school, you would have to dig deeper to determine whether the act was related to the child’s disability or not.
For example, if the child took the knife from his/her parent the night before, hid the knife in his/her dresser drawer, put in his/her backpack, and then brought it to school the next day, it would hardly be an impulsive act. There was too much planning involved.
On the other hand, if while at school, the student was handed a knife from another student and then was caught shortly thereafter with the knife, that might be an impulsive act because there was a lack of planning. This would help establish impulsivity, as part of the child’s disability.
The second question to answer is whether the act that was committed was a direct result of the district’s failure to implement the child’s IEP. As an example, let’s say the child has counseling services for anger management, and the child doesn’t get those services for an extended period of time. And the act that was committed was an outburst in school where the child threw a chair. In this case, one could argue that the outburst was a direct result of the district’s failure to implement the IEP.
On the other hand, if that same child failed to get Speech language services, and the same act occurred, then that connection would probably be too far removed.
So the focus is the connection between the service that’s on the IEP that the student failed to receive, and its relationship to the act that was committed.
If either the answer to either of the two above questions of the manifestation determination meeting is yes, then the school cannot proceed with its disciplinary action.
Instead, they have to continue services, and return the student to the placement that the student was in prior to the disciplinary act (unless it was a serious conduct such as a bring a weapon to school or causing serious bodily injury, which might allow the district to pursue an interim alternative placement).
But keep in mind, the district can still hold an IEP meeting and pursue assessments and possibly a change of placement, if appropriate, to a more restrictive setting.
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