Schools grapple with special ed discipline limits

By Del Stover

3/5/02 – When three students assaulted an assistant principal at a Palm Beach County, Fla., high school last year, the school's principal acted quickly–the police were called, and the students were immediately suspended.

Kicking the students out of school permanently, however, was never really an option. Federal law puts strict limits on the disciplinary measures that can be used against students with disabilities.

The students–diagnosed with learning disabilities–were eventually transferred to an alternative school for troubled youths, says Russ Feldman, executive director of exceptional student education in Palm Beach County. But not before school officials went through an arduous administrative review process, including a series of meetings with the students' individualized education program (IEP) teams and attorneys, he says.

Navigating the legal and regulatory intricacies of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is not a simple process. "The whole discipline issue is extremely complex," Feldman says. "A lot of principals would prefer to have more leeway to protect their schools."

Others voice similar opinions. Critics say IDEA makes it too difficult and expensive to remove violent or disruptive students from the classroom. And, they add, the law undermines the disciplinary process by fostering a double standard: Two students who commit the same offense can receive vastly different punishments.

"Why should we have to follow two separate discipline systems, just because one student has a disability and the other does not?" asks Reginald Felton, NSBA's director of federal programs. "Any disciplinary action should be based solely on what's necessary to ensure safe schools for all students."

The issue has been a sore point for local school boards and administrators since IDEA was enacted in 1975. And, despite improvements to the law in 1997, the law's disciplinary provisions are expected to again be a key topic of debate when Congress takes up the reauthorization of IDEA this year.

Red tape

On paper, IDEA allows students to be suspended or expelled for offenses that are not related to their disabilities. And students guilty of a weapons or drug offense–or who pose a clear threat to others–also can be dealt with firmly, regardless of disabilities.

Talk to the teachers and administrators who grapple with the day-to-day reality of special education, however, and an entirely different perspective emerges: Despite some tough language, the law does not make it easy for school officials to ensure school safety.

For one thing, there's just too much red tape involved, school officials complain. Under the law, any suspension that lasts longer than 10 days involves a series of meetings, hearings, and other procedural steps.

"You've got to do a number of things within 10 days," says Leah Kelley, director of exceptional student education in Broward County, Fla. "You're in a real rush mode."

In Waterford, Wis., completing all the procedural requirements isn't always possible in 10 days, says district administrator Gwen O'Cull.

On more than one occasion, that's left local school officials in a dilemma: What to do with a potentially violent or disruptive student when there's no agreement yet on what new placement is appropriate for the child? The law says the child has to go back to school, O'Cull says.

Where to put them?

"We have hired a monitor to work with students until the assessment was made that they were able to return to a normal school environment," she says. "We've incurred the cost of having monitors riding on buses when there was a threat and danger to students."

School administrators say the disciplinary process also is stymied by the need to determine if a student's behavior is a "manifestation" of his or her disability. That determination can be difficult at times. School officials say some parents and attorneys are quick to exploit that uncertainty to press for compromises on disciplinary action.

At times, it seems as if school officials are not in control of the disciplinary process, says Andy Correro, a school board member in Waterford.

"Our hands are tied," he says. "We want to get language in IDEA that lets the school board have some say in what happens to kids."

Despite such complaints, no one is suggesting the system is completely unworkable. In Clark County, Nev., Assistant Superintendent Brad Reitz says a student who brings a gun to school or assaults a teacher will be hauled off by police, then will be suspended or expelled.

But the procedural obstacles are only a part of the problem, say school officials, who complain their efforts to ensure safe schools are hampered by an inadequate system of alternative placements for troubled youths.

It's a huge issue for school administrators because IDEA mandates that all students with disabilities receive educational services. So suspending or expelling students doesn't necessarily mean that school systems are rid of them.

As a huge metropolitan school system, Clark County has the financial resources to operate its own alternative site–currently serving 800 students, including 200 in special education programs.

The facility makes all the difference to school administrators who are dealing with extremely troubled youths, Reitz says. Schools are not forced to accommodate students they're ill equipped to handle, and district staff are not forced to scramble to find an alternative site for a student guilty of a weapons or drug offense.

That luxury isn't available to a small school system. In Waterford, school officials say that providing after-school instruction is the only alternative placement available to their expelled students.

Another wrinkle to the problem is the law's requirement that students be educated in the "least restrictive" environment. Some critics complain that, in an attempt to balance the law's mandate with available resources, some schools err on the side of accommodation, putting teachers and students at unnecessary risk.

In Washington state, at least a dozen teachers and aides are making that argument in claims against their school systems for injuries received while caring for violent children.

Joyce Burtch, who's suing the Puyallup, Wash., school district, has been a special education teacher for 25 years. But she left the school system after an assignment in which she and two aides were isolated with three students who went into "wild rages" and repeatedly kicked, punched, spit, and clawed them.

In Burtch's opinion, these severely disabled students needed a much more restrictive environment, and their presence at school posed a serious security risk. "I can't believe they let these kids in school," she says. "Usually these are the kinds of kids who are institutionalized when they go into rages. It was like being a lion tamer in a cage."

Double standard

Many school officials insist they are able to ensure school safety while striving to mete out discipline reasonably and even-handedly.

And there's some evidence to support that claim. A 2001 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office found that students with disabilities who are involved in violent or other serious incidents receive comparable punishments to their non-disabled peers.

Yet, several school administrators argue they see no sign of comparable punishments. A student in regular education who brings a gun to school is expelled for a year; a student with a learning disability–and who obviously knows right from wrong–commits the same offense and is sent to an alternative school or forced into an after-school program.

It's a double standard that's galling to school officials, who blame the dual disciplinary system on the law's educational requirements, concerns about litigation, and limited alternatives for placement.

With school safety at stake, it shouldn't matter if a child's disability is a factor, O'Cull says. And the law certainly shouldn't offer protection to a child whose disability has no relevance to the offense.

But the law does make a distinction. And the fact that such students return to school, even in a new placement, does not go unnoticed by students, school officials say.

"Students with disabilities actually have declared that they are special education students, and they know they cannot be touched," says Roberta Hatcher, director of special education in Richmond County, Ga.

That's reason enough for change, says Beth Pickman, a special education teacher in Broward County. Students are learning a dangerous–and misleading–lesson about life.

"In real life, if you rob a store, you don't avoid jail because you have a learning disability," she says. "Life doesn't work that way. These students have to learn the same boundaries as the rest of us."

It's time the law was changed, Correro says. "We'd like discipline matters to be left to the local schools. There isn't a school board member who accepts this job who doesn't have the best interests of kids at heart. For Congress to assume we're out to harm or kick kids out of school . . . I want that mentality to change. They need to trust us to do what's in the best interests of all students."