The Toolbox is a full day training program aimed at campus administrators and special education personnel who deal with students with disabilities who present behavioral challenges.

Here’s a question that sometimes comes up in the Toolbox.  You have an ARD meeting to deal with a possible DAEP placement. The student has violated the Code of Conduct in a way that would normally call for DAEP.  But the parent disagrees about the manifestation determination, or the appropriateness of the DAEP.  The meeting is not going to come to consensus.  Is the parent entitled to a 10-day recess? If so, what happens with the student?

In the Toolbox training we talk about this when we discuss Tool #9—Leadership at the Non-Consensus ARD Meeting.  In Texas we have a regulation that calls for a 10-day recess when the ARD fails to come to consensus.  However, the 10-day recess regulation has some exceptions built into it.  The regulation says:

The opportunity to recess and reconvene is not required when the student’s presence on the campus presents a danger of physical harm to the student or others or when the student has committed an expellable offense or an offense that may lead to a placement in a DAEP.  19 T.A.C. 89.1050(f)(1).

So you don’t have to offer a recess in this situation.  The ARD can come to closure without consensus.  The ARD should decide on what “interim alternative educational setting” (IAES) the student will be served in—which is usually going to be your DAEP.  The parent who disagrees can request an expedited hearing. The student “stays put” but not in the previous placement. The student “stays put” in the IAES.

Want to know more?  Let me bring the Toolbox to your district or ESC! I’ve got two coming up soon—Region 6 this Friday and Region 7 on April 10.

DAWG BONE:  NO RECESS WHEN IT’S A DISCIPLINARY SITUATION.