Disciplining Students Receiving Special Education By .docx

Disciplining Students Receiving Special Education
By
Vincent H. A. Gordon, Jr., Ph.D.
April 2017

Abstract
A brief synopsis of the legality of disciplining students with
special needs in public
education is presented. An example of a case study is also
presented from the
experience of the author demonstrating laws surrounding
providing students with a free
and public education (FAPE). Examples of the application of
the laws protecting
students’ rights to FAPE and the responsibility of school

districts to insure the timely
response of handling discipline issues are also presented.

Legal Analysis
Laws are made to protect the rights, liberty, life, and the
pursuits of happiness of
individuals. This paraphrase of the Fourteenth Amendment of
the Constitution of the
United States of America is exhibited in every area of society.
The discipline of
education also has these same laws to protect and to preserve
the sanctity of instruction
where the transmittal of knowledge is presented in an
atmosphere that is conducive to
the learning environment. When students habitually display
inappropriate attitudes and
behaviors especially after appropriate disciplinary responses are
applied to try to
discourage those destructive actions, alternative means of
providing education to those
students become an urgent priority of the school to insure that
instruction and learning

continue and are not hindered by the wrongful choices of
disrespectful, disobedient, and
disruptive students.
There are federal laws, state statutes, case laws, and local
policies which address
the areas of rights, liberty, life, and the pursuits of happiness of
individuals who are
disabled. The intent of these laws, statutes, and policies are
positive. The main purpose
of these safeguards is to insure that everyone is treated fairly
and is not disadvantaged
due to a physical, mental, or emotional disability. The
challenge exists when
individuals with a disability or disabilities exploit their
disability or disabilities and the
intent of these laws, statutes, and policies, to perpetuate their
wrongful and selfish
impulses. The topic: Disciplining Students Receiving Special
Education attempts to
address the importance of following legal documents to help
and not to hinder the
protection and preservation of instruction and learning in a safe
environment for all
students.

According to Title 20>Chapter 33>Subchapter II>c 1415
Procedural Safeguards,
there are different types of procedures listed which address the
responsibilities and
rights of schools, parents, and students pertaining to
disciplining students receiving
Special Education. One of those procedures discussed the steps
to be initiated by the
school prior to initiating or refusing to initiate a change of
placement.
(3) Written prior notice to the parents of the child, in
accordance with subsection
(c) (i), whenever the local educational agency
(A) proposes to initiate or change; or
(B) refuses to initiate or change, the identification, evaluation,
or educational
placement of the child, or the provision of a free appropriate
public education to
the child (http://www.4.law.cornell.edu/uscode).
In case either the school or the parent is not satisfied with a

particular decision, an
appeal becomes the next step in trying to resolve the issue.
According to Procedural
Safeguards 1415 of Title 20>Chapter 33>Subchapter II, the
definition along with a brief
description of an appeal is given when both parties or either
party tries to rectify a
problem pertaining to Free And Appropriate Education (FAPE)
and Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (I.D.E.A.):
(A) In general, the parent of a child with a disability who
disagrees with any
decision regarding placement, or the manifestation
determination under this
subsection, or a local educational agency that believes that
maintaining the
current placement of the child is substantially likely to result in
injury to the
child or to others, may request a hearing.
(B) Authority of hearing officer
(i) In general, a hearing officer shall hear, and make a
determination regarding
an appeal requested under subparagraph (A).

http://www.4.law.cornell.edu/uscode
(ii) Change of Placement Order. In making the determination
under clause (i),
the hearing officer may order a change in placement of a child
with a disability.
In such situations, the hearing officer may-
(I) return a child with a disability to the placement from where
the child was
removed; or
(II) order a change in placement of a child with a disability to
an appropriate
educational setting for not more than 45 school days if the
hearing officer
determines that maintaining the current placement of such child
is substantially
likely to result in injury to the child or to others
(http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode).
According to Imber (2004), “disputes between parents and
schools over the issue
of LRE are common. Sometimes the school advocates special
placement, while parents

favor education in the regular classroom, and sometimes the
positions are reversed.”
Sometimes, the behavior of the student is so disruptive that it
impedes the learning of
other students (p277). Imber presented a case study of a sixth
grader whose parents
insisted that their son’s disruptive behavior was due to his
disability of Attention Deficit
Hypertension Disorder (ADHD) (p261). The school had tried
numerous intervention
plans to accommodate and modify the student’s behavior.
However, his behavior was
the same. When the school attempted to expel the student, the
parents stated that
expelling their son was not permitted under the policies of
IDEA because of his
disability of ADHD. The parents argued that their son was
entitled to FAPE. The
school contended that they had to significantly alter their
discipline code of conduct to
accommodate their son’s inappropriate behavior (p262).
The case went before the First Circuit. The First Circuit
upheld the school’s
decision to expel the sixth grader because, according to the

court, Americans with
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode
Disabilities Act (ADA) does not require “a school to suspend its
normal codes of
conduct in order to tolerate disruptive and disrespectful conduct
when that behavior
impaired the educational experience of other students and
significantly taxed the
resources of the faculty and other students” (p262).
Both of these documents, the U.S. Code and the case law
support the educational
practice of disciplining students receiving special education
where a change of
placement may be warranted. According to Title 20 subsection
(6) under Procedural
Safeguards 1415, any party has an opportunity to present a
complaint if either party is
dissatisfied with a decision made pertaining to “any matter
relating to the identification,
evaluation, or educational placement of the child, or the
provision of FAPE” when
disciplining a student with special needs
(http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode).

Case Study
One school year as a new administrator, I had the opportunity
to participate in a
Mediation meeting with one of our students who was receiving
special services at our
public high school. Due to a number of level 3 and 4
infractions which are infractions
of a more serious nature according to the U.S. Virgin Islands
Board of Education Policy
Manual, student “X” received intervention plans, counseling
from his school counselor,
and a behavior contract. The behavior of this student escalated
to the point of his
physically retaliating against one of the school monitors during
a fight after school. The
Basic Child Study Team (BCST) which consisted of the five
administrators (principal
and four assistant principals), school’s guidance counselors, the
resource teacher in the
Department of Special Education at the school, and the school
nurse, met to review
those students whose behaviors and academic performances
were found to be at risk

academically and socially, and to decide a plan of action for
assisting them to do better
at school. Determination of identifying those students whose
academic performances
and behaviors to be at risk were: attendance, academics, and
discipline records. This
process was completed for all of the students (General
Education, Bilingual Education
and Special Education students) whose level of performance in
the above mentioned
areas were poor. The BCST decided that perhaps a change of
placement would be best
for some of these students whom the school preferred to refer to
as our “students of
hope” instead of using the negative descriptor “students at risk”
to describe or to refer to
them. Those students who were referred to the Alternative
Education Program
transferred without incident from either student or parent, with
the exception of one
parent. Student “X”’s mother’s sentiments which were
expressed verbally to me were

that she did not want her son to be “mixing with criminals” at
the Alternative Education
Program.
The director of the Alternative Education Program was present
at the school
conducting an orientation of the program for the parents of
those students who were
referred to attend the program. The parent of student “X”
walked out of the orientation
and stated that the orientation was not for her son. The parent
promptly filed a Due
Process with the State Office of Special Education, she
contacted a Child Advocate, and
she sent a copy of her complaint to the Office of the
Superintendent in the Department
of Education.
I received a letter from the superintendent, the attorney
representing the parent,
and from the State Office of Special Education directing me to
allow student “X” to
remain at the school. The directive was a “Stay Put” directive
until a decision could be
rendered at the Mediation meeting since the time of completing
the Due Process had

already passed the ten days.
The Mediation was held where the Director of Special
Education and the
Mediator agreed that due to some discrepancies with the
student’s Behavior
Intervention Plan (BIP) which was not completed in a timely
manner by the resource
teacher, and due to the lack of following protocol in
communicating with the parent in
writing within ten working days before making a decision to
transfer her son to an
alternate setting, the school erred and therefore, the student
would remain at the home
school. Part of the compromise, however, was that the student’s
Individualized
Education Plan (IEP) and Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP)
would reflect the
expectation of the team for drastic adjustments to be made in
the student’s attitude and
behavior. Accountability was set in place in the student’s IEP
and BIP to ensure
complete compliance with the goals of the IEP team and the

academic/discipline code
of conduct of the school. The student would complete the
remaining of the school year
at his home school. He would begin the next school year and
would continue to follow
the IEP goals and the BIP goals. Any infractions would result in
an IEP meeting to
discuss change of placement.
Although one may feel that the school could have been given an
opportunity to
correct their procedural error while permitting the student to
attend the Alternative
Education Program in order to receive the services which
student “X” desperately
needed without any distractions, the importance of completing
careful documentation
and following procedures within the ten working days in order
to prevent litigation or
the violation of someone’s rights were understood. In order to
prevent legal issues from
arising, one has to be extremely careful in documenting and
following proper protocol
according to law and to those policies which guide schools.
The student completed the

remaining year without incident and did not return the following
school year. His
mother transferred him to another school district within the
United States.
References
Imber, M. and Geel, T. (2004). Educational law third edition.
Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Inc. New Jersey.
The U.S. Code. Retrieved from
Project: Risk Management Plan
Purpose
This project provides an opportunity to apply the competencies
gained in the lessons of this course to develop a risk

management plan for a fictitious organization to replace its
outdated plan.
Learning Objectives and Outcomes
You will gain an overall understanding of risk management, its
importance, and critical processes required when developing a
formal risk management plan for an organization.
Required Source Information and Tools
The following tools and resources that will be needed to
complete this project:
· Course textbook
· Internet access for research
Deliverables
As discussed in this course, risk management is an important
process for all organizations. This is particularly true in
information systems, which provides critical support for
organizational missions. The heart of risk management is a
formal risk management plan. The project activities described in
this document allow you to fulfill the role of an employee
participating in the risk management process in a specific
business situation.
The project is structured as follows:
Project Part
Deliverable
Project Part 1
Task 1: Risk Management Plan
Task 2: Risk Assessment Plan
Task 3: Risk Mitigation Plan
Project Part 2
Task 1: Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Plan
Task 2: Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
Task 3: Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)

Task 4: Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) Plan
Final Project
Risk Management Plan Final Submission
Submission Requirements
All project submissions should follow this format:
· Format: Microsoft Word or compatible
· Font: Arial, 10-point, double-space
· Citation Style: Your school’s preferred style guide
· Minimum 2 pages per task
Scenario
You are an information technology (IT) intern working for
Health Network, Inc. (Health Network), a fictitious health
services organization headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Health Network has over 600 employees throughout the
organization and generates $500 million USD in annual
revenue. The company has two additional locations in Portland,
Oregon and Arlington, Virginia, which support a mix of
corporate operations. Each corporate facility is located near a
co-location data center, where production systems are located
and managed by third-party data center hosting vendors.
Company Products
Health Network has three main products: HNetExchange,
HNetPay, and HNetConnect.
HNetExchange is the primary source of revenue for the
company. The service handles secure electronic medical
messages that originate from its customers, such as large
hospitals, which are then routed to receiving customers such as
clinics.
HNetPay is a Web portal used by many of the company’s
HNetExchange customers to support the management of secure
payments and billing. The HNetPay Web portal, hosted at
Health Network production sites, accepts various forms of
payments and interacts with credit-card processing
organizations much like a Web commerce shopping cart.
HNetConnect is an online directory that lists doctors, clinics,
and other medical facilities to allow Health Network customers

to find the right type of care at the right locations. It contains
doctors’ personal information, work addresses, medical
certifications, and types of services that the doctors and clinics
offer. Doctors are given credentials and are able to update the
information in their profile. Health Network customers, which
are the hospitals and clinics, connect to all three of the
company’s products using HTTPS connections. Doctors and
potential patients are able to make payments and update their
profiles using Internet-accessible HTTPS Web sites.
Information Technology Infrastructure Overview
Health Network operates in three production data centers that
provide high availability across the company’s products. The
data centers host about 1,000 production servers, and Health
Network maintains 650 corporate laptops and company-issued
mobile devices for its employees.
Threats Identified
Upon review of the current risk management plan, the following
threats were identified:
· Loss of company data due to hardware being removed from
production systems
· Loss of company information on lost or stolen company-
owned assets, such as mobile devices and laptops
· Loss of customers due to production outages caused by various
events, such as natural disasters, change management, unstable
software, and so on
· Internet threats due to company products being accessible on
the Internet
· Insider threats
· Changes in regulatory landscape that may impact operations
Management Request
Senior management at Health Network has determined that the
existing risk management plan for the organization is out of
date and a new risk management plan must be developed.
Because of the importance of risk management to the
organization, senior management is committed to and supportive
of the project to develop a new plan. You have been assigned to

develop this new plan.
Additional threats other than those described previously may be
discovered when re-evaluating the current threat landscape
during the risk assessment phase.
The budget for this project has not been defined due to senior
management’s desire to react to any and all material risks that
are identified within the new plan. Given the company’s annual
revenue, reasonable expectations can be determined.
Project Part 1
Project Part 1 Task 1: Risk Management Plan
For the first part of the assigned project, you must create an
initial draft of the final risk management plan. To do so, you
must:
1. Develop and provide an introduction to the plan by
explaining its purpose and importance.
1. Create an outline for the completed risk management plan.
1. Define the scope and boundaries of the plan.
1. Research and summarize compliance laws and regulations
that pertain to the organization.
1. Identify the key roles and responsibilities of individuals and
departments within the organization as they pertain to risk
management.
1. Develop a proposed schedule for the risk management
planning process.
1. Create a professional report detailing the information above
as an initial draft of the risk management plan.
Write an initial draft of the risk management plan as detailed in
the instructions above. Your plan should be made using a
standard word processor format compatible with Microsoft
Word.
Evaluation Criteria and Rubrics
· Did the student demonstrate an understanding of the
competencies covered in the course thus far?
· Did the student include all important components of a risk
management plan in the outline?

· Did the student demonstrate good research, reasoning, and
decision-making skills in identifying key components and
compliance laws and regulations?
· Did the student create a professional, well-developed draft
with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation?
Project Part 1 Task 2: Risk Assessment Plan
After creating an initial draft of the risk management plan, the
second part of the assigned project requires you to create a draft
of the risk assessment (RA) plan. To do so, you must:
1. Develop an introduction to the plan explaining its purpose
and importance.
2. Create an outline for the RA plan.
3. Define the scope and boundaries for the RA plan.
4. Research and summarize RA approaches.
5. Identify the key roles and responsibilities of individuals and
departments within the organization as they pertain to risk
assessment.
6. Develop a proposed schedule for the RA process.
7. Create a professional report detailing the information above
as an initial draft of the RA plan.
· Did the student demonstrate an understanding of the
competencies covered in the course relating to risk
assessments?
· Did the student include all important components of a RA plan
in the outline?
· Did the student demonstrate good research, reasoning, and
decision-making skills in identifying key components and
methodologies?
ProjectPart 1 Task 3: Risk Mitigation Plan

Senior management at Health Network allocated funds to
support a risk mitigation plan, and have requested that the risk
manager and team create a plan in response to the deliverables
produced within the earlier phases of the project. The risk
mitigation plan should address the identified threats described
in the scenario for this project, as well as any new threats that
may have been discovered during the risk assessment. You have
been assigned to develop this new plan.
· Did the student develop a high-quality risk mitigation plan
based on material provided in the course?
· Did the student use information obtained from the earlier parts
of the project to build out a risk mitigation plan?
Project Part 2
Project Part 2 Task 1: Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Plan
This part of the project is a continuation of Project Part 1 in
which you prepared an RA plan and a risk mitigation plan for
Health Network. Senior management at the company has
decided to allocate funds for a business impact analysis (BIA).
Because of the importance of risk management to the
organization, senior management is committed to and supportive
of performing a BIA. You have been assigned to develop the
BIA plan.
· Did the student complete a BIA plan based on inputs from the
instructor regarding feedback on submitted work?
· Did the student include the primary objectives of a BIA:
identify critical business functions, identify critical resources,
identify MAO and impact, and identify recovery objectives?
· Did the student create a professional, well-developed report

Project Part 2 Task 2: Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
After having reviewed and being impressed by your business
impact analysis (BIA), senior management at Health Network
has decided that your team must also develop a BCP.
Management has allocated all funds for a BCP and your team
has their full support, as well as permission to contact any of
them directly for participation or inclusion in your BCP plan.
You have been assigned to develop this new plan.
Winter storms on the East Coast have affected the ability of
Health Network employees to reach the Arlington offices in a
safe and timely manner. However, no BCP plan currently exists
to address corporate operations. The Arlington office is the
primary location for business units, such as Finance, Legal, and
Customer Support. Some of the corporate systems, such as the
payroll and accounting applications, are located only in the
corporate offices. Each corporate location is able to access the
other two, and remote virtual private network (VPN) exist
between each Production data center and the corporate
locations.
The corporate systems are not currently being backed up and
should be addressed in the new plan. The BCP should also
include some details regarding how the BCP will be tested.
You may refer to the following additional resources to help you
and your team develop a BCP, and you may use a BCP template
if found during your research.
References:
· Guide to Business Continuity Management: Frequently Asked

Questions (Protiviti, 2013),
http://www.protiviti.com/en-US/Documents/Resource-
Guides/Guide-to-BCM-Third-Edition-Protiviti.pdf
· Business Continuity Plan (Ready.gov),
http://www.ready.gov/business/implementation/continuity
· Did the student develop a BCP that could recover business
operations while efforts are ongoing to restart pervious
operations?
· Did the student completely fill out a BCP template if found
during their research?
· Did the student completely understand BCP concepts
presented in class?
· Did the student develop a BCP test plan with correct
processes?
ProjectPart 2 Task 3: Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)
Your project on risk management, the BIA, and the BCP have
been well received by senior management at Health Network.
They now want you to develop a DRP in order to overcome any
mishaps that might occur in the future. You may research and
use National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
templates to develop a DRP plan for the company.
· Did the student develop a DRP that could recover business
operations while efforts are ongoing to restart pervious
operations?
· Did the student completely fill out the template found in their
research?

· Did the student completely understand the DRP constructs
presented in class?
Project Part 2 Task 4: Computer Incident Response Team
(CIRT) Plan
By now you should have developed an RA, a risk mitigation
plan, and a BIA, BCP, and DRP.
In this part of the project, you will create a CIRT plan for
Health Network. The company headquarters (HQ) handles all
incidents because the information security organization is
located in Minneapolis, so the plan will have its roots at HQ.
Make sure to incorporate your instructor’s feedback on earlier
submissions if applicable to the CIRT plan.
· Did the student consider the inputs provided in their earlier
submissions?
· Did the student develop a sound CIRT plan?
Risk Management Plan Final Submission
After creating the CIRT plan, compile all project parts and
submit to your instructor. You will need to create the final
project format based on the following:
Cover page
Table of Content
Executive Summary
Introduction

Part 1&2
Conclusion
· Did the student consider the inputs provided in their earlier
submissions?
· Did the student develop sound plans based on the requirements
described during the project phases?
· Did the student provide clear and easy-to-understand
documentation, which may include tables and other presentation
elements?
© 2015 by Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, an Ascend Learning
Company. All rights reserved.
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