Expulsion from school

[KSpry]

does anyone know if an autistic child can be suspended from school for his poor behaviors when his behavior problems are stated in his IEP?

kspry

[Lisa S]

Yes and no. The child can be suspended for behaviors that are a direct manifestation of his disability as long as the suspension does not constitute a change in placement and as long as the suspension is appropriate disciplinary practice and consistent with the treatment of non-disabled children. For a suspension to constitute a change in placement, it would first need to be more than 10 days or partial days, in a single school year. This 10 day limit does not apply if the child brings drugs or weapons to school; in this case, I think the suspension can be no longer than 45 days. In any case in a longer suspension, a child with a disability is still entitled to a Free Appropriate Public Education during his suspension. If the child is suspended for more than ten days or partial days, he must still be given a FAPE during his suspension and also no later than 10 business days after the eleventh day of the child's suspension from school, a meeting of the IEP team must be convened to discuss the behavior and the best way to deal with it.

Does the child have a behavoral support plan in addition to his IEP? Was the BSP being followed? If not, why not and if so, then the BSP needs to be reevaluated by the whole IEP team and replaced with a better one that properly addresses the child's issues. These are a few of the things I would say in an emergency IEP meeting, which I believe would be convened if your child is about to be suspended from school. It works better if school personnel try to come up with a proactive plan with parents as their partners to deal with your child's behavior rather than just suspending him against his parent's wishes and alienating them.

Wrightslaw has tons of useful information if you poke around there:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/

Look at this page about discipline and behavior problems there:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/discipl.index.htm

Here is another page that may be helpful:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/discipline_faqs_osep.htm

I found this there:

Of course, in the case of less serious infractions, schools can address the misconduct through appropriate instructional and/or related services, including conflict management, behavior management strategies, and measures such as study carrels, time-outs, and restrictions in privileges, so long as they are not inconsistent with the child's IEP. If a child's IEP or behavior intervention plan addresses a particular behavior, it generally would be inappropriate to utilize some other response, such as suspension, to that behavior.

Hope this helps. Maybe if you told us a little more about your situation, we could help more.

I look forward to getting to know you, KSpry.

Lisa