If you disagree with a manifestation determination or a disciplinary placement, federal law gives you an appeal that runs on a faster clock than any other due process case.
The team went around the table, the district members concluded the behavior was not a manifestation, and your child starts at the alternative program on Monday. You disagree with the finding, and you have heard that school disputes take months to resolve. This one runs on a different clock, because the regulations built a separate, faster track for discipline disputes.
Under 34 C.F.R. § 300.532(a), a parent who disagrees with any decision regarding placement under §§ 300.530 and 300.531, or with the manifestation determination under § 300.530(e), may appeal by requesting a hearing. The request takes the form of a due process complaint filed under §§ 300.507 and 300.508(a) and (b), the same filing that begins an ordinary due process case.
The parent of a child with a disability who disagrees with any decision regarding placement under §§ 300.530 and 300.531, or the manifestation determination under § 300.530(e), or an LEA that believes that maintaining the current placement of the child is substantially likely to result in injury to the child or others, may appeal the decision by requesting a hearing.
34 C.F.R. § 300.532(a)
The district holds a right on the same track. A district that believes maintaining the current placement of the child is substantially likely to result in injury to the child or to others may file its own complaint seeking a hearing.
This post is general information rather than legal advice, and a special education attorney or your state's Parent Training and Information Center can advise you on a specific case.
An ordinary due process hearing can stretch across a semester. A discipline appeal cannot, because § 300.532(c)(2) requires the expedited hearing to occur within 20 school days of the date the complaint is filed and requires the hearing officer to issue a determination within 10 school days after the hearing.
Read the units carefully, because the regulation switches them within the same section. The 20-day and 10-day limits count school days, so weekends and breaks do not count against them. The resolution timelines in § 300.532(c)(3) count plain days instead: a resolution meeting must occur within seven days of receiving notice of the complaint, unless you and the district agree in writing to waive it or agree to use mediation under § 300.506, and the hearing may proceed unless the matter has been resolved to both parties' satisfaction within 15 days of the complaint's receipt.
Section 300.532(b)(2) gives the hearing officer two specific powers. The officer may return your child to the placement from which the school removed them, upon determining either that the removal violated § 300.530 or that the behavior was a manifestation of your child's disability. The officer may instead order a change of placement to an appropriate interim alternative educational setting for not more than 45 school days, upon determining that maintaining the current placement is substantially likely to result in injury to the child or to others.
The 45 school day authority can repeat. Under § 300.532(b)(3), the procedures may be repeated if the district believes that returning the child to the original placement is substantially likely to result in injury to the child or to others, so a district with continuing safety concerns can file again as one period of 45 school days ends.
The school-day clocks start when the complaint is filed, and your child's placement during the appeal follows a rule of its own. Under § 300.533, which the next post covers, the child generally remains in the interim alternative educational setting while the appeal is pending, so every week between the decision and your filing adds a week to your child's time in that setting.
Before you file, gather the record: the IEP, the manifestation paperwork, every removal notice, and your own count of removal days kept in school days. Your state's Parent Training and Information Center can walk you through the complaint format at no cost, and stating your disagreement on the record at the manifestation meeting itself gives the appeal a clean starting point.
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Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities, 34 C.F.R. § 300.506 (2017).
Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities, 34 C.F.R. § 300.507 (2017).
Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities, 34 C.F.R. § 300.508 (2017).
Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities, 34 C.F.R. § 300.530 (2017).
Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities, 34 C.F.R. § 300.531 (2017).
Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities, 34 C.F.R. § 300.532 (2017).
Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities, 34 C.F.R. § 300.533 (2017).
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq. (2004).
Keep reading
IDEA does not stop a school from reporting a crime, and a report does not stop the IEP. Here is what the regulation permits, what FERPA limits, and what to ask for if it happens to your family.
A child without an IEP can still claim IDEA's discipline protections if the district had reason to know about a disability before the incident occurred. A dated written concern is what creates that protection.
In most special education disputes, your child stays put while the case is heard. Discipline appeals flip that default, and knowing which way it points changes how you use the process.