Discipline and Crisis

Students with disabilities are entitled to additional protections in discipline to ensure that these students are not disciplined for behavior that results from their disabilities or the public agency’s failure to properly implement the students’ educational programs.  The key to this process is the manifestation determination meeting.  Schools must invite a representative from the Institute to these meetings and use the proper Alpine forms.  These additional protections do not apply to every disciplinary situation; they apply when a student with disabilities is facing discipline that will result in a change of placement.  Changes in placement, by law, are defined as removals that result in the student being out of school for ten or more consecutive school days or a series of removals that total more than ten school days in a year and constitute a pattern.  These additional protections generally apply to students with disabilities eligible under either IDEA or Section 504.