A suspension takes your child out of school, and federal law counts every day of it. At ten school days in a year, protections most families never hear about switch on.
The call comes at lunchtime. Your child is suspended for five days, the assistant principal says, and someone will send the paperwork home. What the office rarely explains is that federal law counts every day of that removal, and that the count changes what the school owes your child.
Under 34 C.F.R. § 300.530(b)(1), school personnel may remove a child with a disability who violates a code of student conduct to another setting, or through suspension, for not more than 10 consecutive school days, to the extent the school applies the same consequence to children without disabilities. The school may also order additional removals of not more than 10 consecutive school days in the same school year for separate incidents of misconduct, as long as those removals do not become a change of placement under § 300.536.
Within 10 school days of any decision to change the placement of a child with a disability because of a violation of a code of student conduct, the LEA, the parent, and relevant members of the child's IEP Team (as determined by the parent and the LEA) must review all relevant information in the student's file, including the child's IEP, any teacher observations, and any relevant information provided by the parents to determine— (i) If the conduct in question was caused by, or had a direct and substantial relationship to, the child's disability; or (ii) If the conduct in question was the direct result of the LEA's failure to implement the IEP.
34 C.F.R. § 300.530(e)(1)
Every count in this regulation runs in school days rather than calendar days, so weekends, holidays, and breaks never count against a removal. A five-day suspension that spans a school vacation stretches much longer on your family's calendar than it does on the school's count.
The regulation also requires judgment before any of this happens. Section 300.530(a) directs school personnel to consider any unique circumstances on a case-by-case basis when deciding whether a change in placement is appropriate for a child with a disability, so a district that claims a zero tolerance policy leaves it no choice is describing its own policy rather than federal law.
Once your child has been removed for 10 school days in the same school year, § 300.530(b)(2) requires the district to provide services during any further days of removal. The substance of those services comes from § 300.530(d): they must enable your child to continue participating in the general education curriculum, although in another setting, and to keep progressing toward the goals in the IEP.
The threshold is cumulative. Three separate three-day suspensions followed by a two-day suspension cross it just as surely as one long removal, which is why keeping your own written count of every removal day matters.
Within 10 school days of any decision to change your child's placement because of a violation of a code of student conduct, § 300.530(e)(1) requires the district, you, and relevant members of your child's IEP team to review all relevant information in your child's file, including the IEP, any teacher observations, and any relevant information you provide. You and the district decide together which team members are relevant, and the regulation names parent-provided information as part of the record the review must consider.
The review answers two questions: whether the conduct was caused by, or had a direct and substantial relationship to, your child's disability, and whether the conduct was the direct result of the district's failure to implement the IEP. If the answer to either question is yes, § 300.530(e)(2) requires the team to find that the conduct was a manifestation of your child's disability.
When the conduct is a manifestation, § 300.530(f) requires the IEP team to conduct a functional behavioral assessment, unless the district already conducted one before the behavior occurred, and to implement what the regulation at § 300.530(f)(1)(i) calls a "behavioral intervention plan" for the child. If your child already has one, the team must review the behavior intervention program and modify it as necessary to address the behavior.
The team must also return your child to the placement from which the school removed them, unless you and the district agree to a change of placement as part of modifying the BIP, or unless the special circumstances below apply.
A yes on the second question carries its own consequence. If the conduct resulted directly from the district's failure to implement the IEP, § 300.530(e)(3) requires the district to take immediate steps to remedy those deficiencies, and the regulation says immediate rather than at the next annual review.
Section 300.530(g) lets school personnel move a child to an interim alternative educational setting for not more than 45 school days regardless of the manifestation answer in three situations: the child carries or possesses a weapon at school, on school premises, or at a school function; the child knowingly possesses or uses illegal drugs, or sells or solicits the sale of a controlled substance, in those same places; or the child inflicts serious bodily injury on another person there. Those 45 days are school days as well, which comes to roughly nine weeks of instruction. The child's IEP team, which includes you, decides where that interim setting is, and the next post in this series covers that decision under § 300.531.
On the date the district decides on a removal that amounts to a change of placement, § 300.530(h) requires it to notify you of the decision and give you the procedural safeguards notice described in § 300.504. A decision like this also deserves a written record of what the district decided and why, and our post on Prior Written Notice explains how to request that record under 34 C.F.R. § 300.503.
Our free IEP Audit reviews your child's IEP across six research-grounded areas and returns a written report naming what is missing and what to ask for. Families pay nothing. Book a New Family Registration call and we will walk you through how it works.
Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities, 34 C.F.R. § 300.503 (2017).
Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities, 34 C.F.R. § 300.504 (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. § 300.536 (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.