Kansas Resources

• Kansas Discipline Procedures NOT Relating to Weapons, Drugs or Dangerous Behavior - The discipline provisions for students with disabilities established by the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA-97) were new, complex, and detailed.  Before 1997, constraints for suspension and expulsion of students with disabilities were not addressed in IDEA.  Federal direction came from case law, letters of guidance from the US Department of Education, and the anti-discrimination provisions of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. 

• Kansas Discipline Procedures Relating to Weapons, Drugs, or Dangerous Behavior (7/10/01) - The discipline provisions for students with disabilities established by the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA-97) were new, complex, and detailed, especially in relationship to violations related to weapons, drugs, and dangerous behavior.  Before 1997, constraints for suspension and expulsion of students with disabilities were not addressed in IDEA. 

• Kansas City, Kansas School Code of Conduct - To ensure the success of your son or daughter, please take a few moments and review this Code of Conduct with your child. Explain to your child the importance of the “Student Expectation” section and how the virtues listed will serve them now and in their adult lives. Remind your son or daughter that the expectations listed are useful in both the educational  environment and life in general. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )

• Lyons High School Code of Conduct Manual - USD 405 Lyons High School (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )

• What You Should Know About School Discipline and Disability? - What happens if my child misbehaves at school? If a student with a disability violates a school rule, the school may do the following, if it would apply the same penalty to students without disabilities for the same offense: (1) Order the child to a temporary educational setting for up to 10 days; or (2) Suspend the student for 10 days. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )

Other Resources

• Discipline Of Students With Disabilities In Elementary And Secondary Schools - This pamphlet summarizes the responsibilities of school officials under Section 504 and the ADA and the rights of students with disabilities and their parents or guardians in situations requiring disciplinary action that could result in expulsion or long-term suspension from educational services.

• Discipline for Children With Disabilities: Questions & Answers from OSEP - The protections in the IDEA regarding discipline are designed to prevent the type of often speculative and subjective decision making by school officials that led to widespread abuses of the rights of children with disabilities to an appropriate education in the past.

• Fair and Effective Discipline for All Students: Best Practice Strategies for Educators - disciplining students particularly those with chronic or serious behavior problems, is a long standing challenge for educators.  They must balance the needs of the school community and those of the individual student.  At the heart of this challenge is the use of punitive versus supportive disciplinary practices.

• "My daughter has an IEP. She has been suspended twice for fighting. The vice principal plans to expel her. Can they do that?": Suspensions, Expulsions, and IEPs - The law states explicitly that a free appropriate public education ("FAPE") must be available to all children with disabilities, "including children with disabilities who have been suspended or expelled from school." (20 U.S.C. §1412(a)(1)(A).)

• Interim Alternative Educational Settings for Children with Disabilities - To the extent removal would be applied to children without disabilities, the removal of a child with a disability from the child's current placement for not more than 10 consecutive school days for any violation of school rules, and additional removals of not more than 10 consecutive school days in that same school year for separate incidents of misconduct (as long as those removals do not constitute a change of placement under §300.519(b)... (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )

• Manifestation Determination Checklist A Tool for IEP Teams - One of the requirements in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is for Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams to conduct a Manifestation Determination for students prior to taking disciplinary actions that results in a change of educational placement (e.g., removal from school for greater than ten consecutive days within a given school year) or when a series of removals constitute a pattern. Specifically, IDEA now explicitly requires specific procedures for conducting a Manifestation Determination review by an IEP team.  (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )

• Manifest Determination Meeting - Manifest determination hearings follow disciplinary actions by the school that result in expulsion or a changing in placement. If a disciplinary action involves a request for a suspension or other actions involving removal from a program for more that ten days, the IEP team must meet to determine whether the misconduct resulted from the disability. This is referred to as a manifest determination hearing, review or IEP meeting

• National Council to Abolish Corporal Punishment in School site for news, facts on physical punishment, legal help, and discussion groups.

• Opportunities Suspended- The Devastating Consequences of Zero Tolerance and School Discipline Policies - This is the first comprehensive national report to scrutinize the impact that the brutally strict Zero Tolerance approach to discipline, currently being used in public schools, is having on American children. The report illustrates that Zero Tolerance is unfair, is contrary to the developmental needs of children, denies children educational opportunities, and often results in the criminalization of children.

• Punishment at school: How to protect your child - Your son comes home from school with a red welt on his arm. When you ask what happened, he says that his teacher grabbed him hard, until it hurt. How can this be? you wonder. Your son doesn't usually lie, but the idea that an adult would harm him at school seems so horrendous, you can't believe it actually happened

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