Special Circumstances - Discipline and ARD Meetings
- Accessible Education
- Oct 25
- 10 min read
Updated: Nov 8
Part 10: Navigating Texas Special Education: Your Essential Guide to ARD Meetings
Discipline situations are among the most stressful circumstances parents of children with disabilities face. Your child has engaged in behavior that violates school rules, and the school is considering consequences that could remove them from their educational placement. But students with disabilities have specific protections that recognize the complex relationship between disability and behavior.
Understanding when and how ARD meetings intersect with discipline, and what rights your child has in these situations, is crucial for every special education parent.
Why Discipline Is Different for Students with Disabilities
Students receiving special education services have the same responsibility to follow school rules as any other student. Schools can discipline students with disabilities using the same interventions used for all students, including time-outs, loss of privileges, detention, and short-term suspensions.
However, students with disabilities also have additional protections that recognize:
Some behaviors may be manifestations of a child's disability
Removing a child from their educational placement can deny them FAPE
Behavioral challenges may indicate the need for additional supports in the IEP
Discipline that amounts to a pattern of exclusion can constitute a change of placement requiring ARD involvement
These protections don't give students with disabilities a free pass to violate school rules. Rather, they ensure that disability-related behavior is addressed through appropriate educational interventions, not simply through exclusion from school.
Understanding "Change of Placement" in Discipline
Not all disciplinary removals trigger the special protections we'll discuss. The key question is whether the removal constitutes a "change of placement." Disciplinary removal constitutes a change of placement when:
1. The removal is for more than 10 consecutive school days
If the school suspends your child for more than 10 consecutive school days, this automatically constitutes a change of placement, triggering ARD involvement and special procedures.
Example: Your child is suspended for 15 consecutive days following a serious behavioral incident. This is a change of placement.
2. A series of removals creates a pattern
Even if individual removals are each 10 days or fewer, a series of removals may constitute a change of placement if they create a pattern. Factors that determine whether a pattern exists include:
The length of each removal
The total amount of time the child has been removed
The proximity of the removals to one another
Whether the behavior prompting removal is substantially similar across incidents
Example: Your child has been suspended for 3 days in September, 5 days in October, 4 days in November, and 5 days in December, 17 total days. The school is now proposing another suspension. Even though no single suspension exceeded 10 days, this series of removals may constitute a pattern that amounts to a change of placement.
Why This Matters: Once discipline rises to the level of a change of placement, specific ARD committee procedures and protections kick in.
Services During Removals
Even when students with disabilities are removed from their current placement due to discipline, they don't simply lose all educational services.
Removals of 10 Days or Fewer: For the first 10 cumulative days of removal in a school year, the school is not required to provide services (just like for students without disabilities).
After 10 Days: After a child with a disability has been removed from their current placement for 10 school days in the same school year, the school must provide services during any subsequent days of removal. These services enable the child to:
Continue to participate in the general education curriculum (though in a different setting)
Progress toward meeting the goals in their IEP
Who Decides What Services: School personnel, in consultation with the child's special education teacher, determine what services are provided during removal. If the removal constitutes a change of placement, the ARD committee makes this determination.
The Manifestation Determination Review (MDR)
When a disciplinary removal constitutes a change of placement, the ARD committee must conduct what's called a Manifestation Determination.
Timeline: The MDR must be conducted within 10 school days of the decision to change the placement due to discipline.
Who Attends: The MDR is conducted by the ARD committee, which includes you as a mandatory member. All the regular ARD requirements apply, proper notice, opportunity to participate, required members present, etc.
The Critical Questions: The MDR requires the ARD committee to review all relevant information and determine whether the conduct in question was:
1. Caused by, or had a direct and substantial relationship to, the child's disability
This isn't asking whether the disability made the behavior more likely, it's asking whether the conduct was directly caused by or substantially related to the disability.
Examples where conduct might be a manifestation:
A student with an intellectual disability who doesn't understand property rights takes another student's belongings
A student with autism who becomes aggressive when overwhelmed by sensory stimuli strikes another student during a crowded, noisy assembly
A student with ADHD whose impulsivity is a core symptom acts without thinking and violates school rules
2. The direct result of the school's failure to implement the IEP
Even if the behavior isn't directly related to the disability itself, if it occurred because the school wasn't implementing the IEP as written, the conduct is considered a manifestation.
Example: The IEP specifies a one-on-one aide to support behavioral regulation, but the school hasn't provided the aide. The student engages in aggressive behavior. This could be found to be a manifestation because it resulted from failure to implement the IEP.
What Information Is Reviewed: The ARD committee reviews:
The IEP
Any teacher observations
Any relevant information provided by the parents
The Standard: The determination must be made based on this information. The ARD committee cannot simply speculate or rely on assumptions; they must base the decision on actual information about the child, their disability, and the conduct.
If the Conduct WAS a Manifestation
If the ARD committee determines the conduct was a manifestation of the child's disability or the result of failure to implement the IEP, specific outcomes follow.
Return to Previous Placement: Generally, the child must return to the placement from which they were removed, unless you and the school agree to a different placement as part of modifying the Behavioral Intervention Plan.
Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) and Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP): If the school has not already conducted an FBA, the ARD committee must conduct one. If the child already has a BIP, the ARD committee must review and modify it as necessary to address the behavior.
What Is an FBA? A Functional Behavioral Assessment is a problem-solving process for understanding why a behavior occurs. It examines:
What happens before the behavior (antecedents)
What the behavior looks like (the specific conduct)
What happens after the behavior (consequences)
What function the behavior serves for the child (what need it meets)
What Is a BIP? A Behavioral Intervention Plan is a written plan that uses information from the FBA to:
Teach replacement behaviors (appropriate ways to meet the same need)
Modify the environment to prevent problem behavior
Ensure consistent responses to the behavior across settings and staff
Include positive behavioral supports and interventions
IEP Review: If the ARD committee determines the conduct was the result of the school's failure to implement the IEP, the school must take immediate steps to remedy those deficiencies.
The Exception - Special Circumstances: Even if conduct is determined to be a manifestation of the disability, the school can place the child in an interim alternative educational setting for up to 45 school days if the behavior involved:
Weapons
Illegal drugs
Serious bodily injury to another person
We'll discuss these special circumstances shortly.
If the Conduct Was NOT a Manifestation
If the ARD committee determines the conduct was not a manifestation of the child's disability and was not the result of failure to implement the IEP, the school may apply the same disciplinary consequences that would apply to students without disabilities.
Same Duration and Extent: The school can impose the same type and length of discipline (including long-term suspension or expulsion) that they would impose on a nondisabled student for the same behavior.
But Services Continue: Even when the conduct is not a manifestation and the school imposes standard disciplinary consequences, the child must still receive:
Educational services to enable them to continue participating in the general education curriculum (though in a different setting)
Services and modifications to address the behavior and prevent it from recurring
Progress toward IEP goals
The ARD Committee Determines Services: The ARD committee determines what services will be provided during the disciplinary removal and in what alternative educational setting.
FAPE Must Continue: Even during long-term suspension or expulsion, students with disabilities are entitled to FAPE. They don't simply go without educational services.
Special Circumstances: Weapons, Drugs, and Serious Bodily Injury
Federal law allows schools to place students in interim alternative educational settings for up to 45 school days in three specific circumstances, regardless of whether the behavior was a manifestation of the disability:
1. Weapons: The child carries a weapon to school or possesses a weapon at school, on school premises, or at a school function.
2. Illegal Drugs: The child knowingly possesses or uses illegal drugs, or sells or solicits the sale of a controlled substance, while at school, on school premises, or at a school function.
3. Serious Bodily Injury: The child inflicts serious bodily injury upon another person while at school, on school premises, or at a school function.
"Serious bodily injury" is defined as: Bodily injury that involves substantial risk of death, extreme physical pain, protracted and obvious disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty.
Even in These Cases:
An MDR must still be conducted
The child continues to receive FAPE
An FBA is conducted (if not already done) and a BIP is implemented or modified
Services continue in the interim alternative educational setting
The 45-School-Day Limit: After 45 school days, the student returns to their previous placement unless the ARD committee agrees to a different placement or the school obtains a hearing officer's order for continued removal.
Parental Rights in Discipline Situations
Throughout disciplinary proceedings involving changes of placement, you retain all your standard ARD rights plus some additional protections:
Notice: You must receive notice explaining the disciplinary decision and the basis for determining it's a change of placement.
MDR Participation: You're a mandatory member of the ARD committee conducting the MDR. The school must ensure you can participate.
Provide Information: You have the right to provide information relevant to the manifestation determination, including observations, medical information, or reports from private providers.
Review Records: You have the right to review all education records relating to the disciplinary decision.
Challenge the Decision: If you disagree with the MDR determination, you can request an expedited due process hearing.
Expedited Hearings: Discipline-related due process hearings follow expedited timelines; hearings must occur within 20 school days of the request, and decisions must be issued within 10 school days after the hearing.
Stay-Put During Appeals: Generally, when you appeal a disciplinary decision through due process, your child remains in the interim alternative educational setting during the proceeding (not the previous placement, as with other due process appeals).
What Schools Cannot Do
Understanding what protections exist also means understanding what schools cannot do:
Cannot Use Discipline as the Primary Intervention: If behavior is an ongoing issue, the school cannot simply keep suspending the child rather than addressing the behavior through the IEP. Repeated suspensions signal the need for an ARD meeting to revise the BIP and add supports.
Cannot Exceed 10 Days Without Process: Schools cannot remove a child for more than 10 consecutive school days without following change-of-placement procedures (unless special circumstances like weapons apply).
Cannot Ignore Patterns: Schools cannot circumvent the 10-day rule by imposing multiple short suspensions that together create a pattern of exclusion without following change-of-placement procedures.
Cannot Deny FAPE: Even during disciplinary removals, schools must continue to provide FAPE. A child with disabilities cannot be completely cut off from educational services as a disciplinary consequence.
Proactive Approaches: Preventing Disciplinary Crises
The best approach to discipline issues is preventing them through proactive planning in the IEP.
Request an FBA Before Crisis: If your child has behavioral challenges, request an FBA and development of a BIP before disciplinary removals occur. Proactive behavioral supports are far more effective than reactive discipline.
Include Behavioral Goals: If behavior interferes with learning, the IEP should include specific behavioral goals with measurable objectives and progress monitoring.
Specify Supports: The IEP should clearly specify what behavioral supports, interventions, and modifications will be provided, who will provide them, and how often.
Train Staff: Ensure the IEP addresses training needs for staff working with your child. If your child's behavior requires specific intervention strategies, all relevant staff should be trained.
Regular Review: Don't wait for the annual ARD meeting if behavioral issues arise. Request an ARD meeting to review and revise the BIP whenever behavior escalates or current interventions aren't working.
Documentation in Discipline Situations
In discipline situations, documentation becomes even more critical. Keep Records of:
All suspensions and removals (dates, length, reasons)
Communications from the school about behavioral incidents
MDR determinations and the information reviewed
FBAs and BIPs (and whether they're being implemented)
Your concerns about behavioral issues raised to the school
Private evaluations or medical information relevant to behavior
If discipline becomes an ongoing issue, this documentation can be essential in demonstrating patterns, showing whether the IEP is being implemented, and supporting your position in dispute resolution proceedings.
The Bigger Picture
Discipline situations involving students with disabilities require balancing multiple interests: maintaining safe school environments, holding students accountable for their behavior, ensuring students with disabilities aren't punished for disability-related conduct, and guaranteeing continued access to education.
The ARD process in discipline situations aims to achieve this balance by asking critical questions: Is this behavior related to the child's disability? Is the school providing appropriate supports? What interventions are needed? How can we address the behavior while maintaining the child's education?
When schools and parents approach these situations collaboratively, focusing on understanding behavior and implementing appropriate supports, discipline can become an opportunity for strengthening the IEP and preventing future incidents.
Moving Forward
We've now covered the comprehensive landscape of ARD meetings, from foundational documents and principles to timelines, rights, decision-making processes, and special circumstances like discipline. In the final installment of this series, we'll bring everything together with practical guidance on preparing for and participating in ARD meetings effectively.
This is part 10 in our series "Navigating Texas Special Education: Your Essential Guide to ARD Meetings." Next up: Part 11: Putting It All Together - Preparing for Your ARD Meeting.
Need Help From a Special Education Advocate For Disciplinary Issues or Manifestation Determination Reviews?
An advocate can help you navigate MDRs, FBAs, and BIPs to protect your child’s educational placement and legal rights. Learn more about our Special Education and Section 504 Advocacy Services or request a free consultation.
