As a parent or guardian of a child attending one of Amarillo's public schools, you are continually concerned that your child is receiving a quality education in a safe environment. You hope that your child will develop good habits as a student and as a person, and you expect that their school will help them do so. So if your child is accused of misconduct that could result in them being assigned to Amarillo's Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (DAEP), you have a right to be upset, worried, and even angry about the situation. You may have questions about what's going to happen next and what you can do about it.
The Amarillo Independent School District (AISD) houses its DAEP for middle- and high-school students at North Heights Alternative School. Students who have been removed from class at their usual school for serious misbehavior may be assigned to the DAEP at North Heights Alternative. In that case, they will be prohibited from returning to their regular classes at their regular school and will even be prohibited from attending their regular school's extracurricular events. As you might guess, the atmosphere at Amarillo's DAEP is very different from the atmosphere at the other AISD schools and will likely come as a shock to your child. In addition, the educational opportunities at North Heights Alternative are significantly more limited than at Amarillo's other schools.
For these reasons, you may want to do everything in your power to keep your child from being assigned to the North Heights Alternative DAEP. Your best chance of accomplishing this is with the help of an experienced student discipline attorney-advisor who has addressed these kinds of situations many times before. Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team have helped students all over the country face serious disciplinary charges at their schools, and they can help your child too. They understand the laws and rules that relate to student discipline and DAEP assignments, and they have the experience and knowledge to help your child do everything possible to remain at their present school and avoid what can be a frightening and humiliating DAEP placement.
What Your Child Can Expect in Amarillo's DAEP School
The daily experience for students assigned to Amarillo's DAEP at North Heights Alternative is vastly more controlled than what students enrolled in Amarillo's other schools encounter on a daily basis. The difference begins with the strict dress code, which includes the following requirements:
- Students must wear a white button-down, long-sleeved dress shirt, and blue-colored jeans with no “fashion elements.”
- They must wear matching socks, either solid white or solid black
- They are required to wear all-white or all-black athletic shoes with no other colors on the shoes
- A black or brown leather or vinyl belt with a “traditional buckle” is required
- If students wear a t-shirt under their dress shirt, it must be solid white with a round neck
- They may wear jackets or coats to school but will have to remove and check them when they arrive; long “duster” style coats are prohibited
- Hats and other head coverings, hair beads, clips, bandanas, and headbands are all prohibited
- Jewelry of any kind is not allowed
- Students may not have artificial nail extensions, nail polish, eyelash extensions or false eyelashes, or “distracting make-up.”
- Tattoos, cuts, and burns must be covered up with a “neutral-colored bandage”
- Fingernails must be “short and natural”
- Eyebrow notches must be filled in before the student enters the school
- Hair must be away from the face, pulled back if necessary, with only a black, brown, or white hair tie
- Hair and any makeup must be “natural” colors only
Once students arrive at Amarillo's DAEP, their behavior while in school is tightly regulated.
- Students are searched each day “with metal detectors and by hand”
- They are prohibited from bringing “ANYTHING” into the school building, including “cell phones, backpacks, purses, school supplies, chapstick, chewing gum, candy, cough drops, medication, cosmetics, or any other personal items”
- Students are assigned a Chromebook, headphones, and a binder, all of which must remain on campus
- Students are prohibited from using the school computer network or the Internet to communicate with anybody
- Instead of the usual classes, Amarillo's DAEP “is a self-paced instructional program offering core subjects”
- When walking from one place to another in the school, students must walk single file in the center of the hall, with both hands on their Chromebooks or in their front pockets if they are not carrying their Chromebook
- When lining up, students must face the wall and wait silently until they are instructed to move
Clearly, students assigned to Amarillo's DAEP experience a much more regimented and restrictive environment than they were used to at their regular school. While this might be necessary in order to maintain order and safety for all students assigned to North Heights Alternative, it can be devastating for a student who was unfairly assigned to the DAEP. This is why it's so important to act quickly if your child is facing a DAEP assignment. Under the procedures adopted by the ASID, you may only have a few days to stop the assignment from happening.
This is not a situation you should face alone. Student discipline attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team can help you prepare to meet with school officials who are considering assigning your child to Amarillo's DAEP. They have faced this kind of situation many times before and can use that experience to help make sure your child's rights are protected. If the misconduct claims are based on flimsy evidence, they can point that out and in other cases, can help you propose other alternative forms of discipline that will keep your child enrolled in their present school.
The Amarillo Independent School District Code of Conduct
The AISD Student Code of Conduct runs for more than 50 pages, and includes some of the procedures that apply when a student is facing assignment to Amarillo's DAEP. It is a district-wide code of conduct, meaning that all of the Amarillo schools use it, including Amarillo's middle and high schools:
Middle Schools
- Austin Middle School
- Bonham Middle School
- Bowie Middle School
- Crockett Middle School
- de Zavala Middle School
- Fannin Middle School
- Houston Middle School
- Mann Middle School
- Travis Middle School
High Schools
- Amarillo High School
- Caprock High School
- Palo Duro High School
- Tascosa High School
Other
- AmTech Career Academy
- North Heights Alternative (DAEP)
These schools, as well as Amarillo's more than 30 elementary schools, all use the same general student code of conduct, which is also available in Spanish.
Types of Misconduct That Can Result in a DAEP Placement
A student may be removed from a classroom by a teacher as part of the day-to-day disciplinary process, and in most cases, it goes no further than the student having to report to the campus behavior coordinator. But where the alleged misconduct is more severe, the student may be prohibited from returning to class for a longer period of time.
These are specific types of misconduct that “may” result in the student being given a DAEP assignment. These include the following:
- Serious forms of bullying that include encouraging a student to commit suicide or participating in group bullying that includes attempted violence against a student
- Being part of a criminal street gang or being involved in a “public school fraternity, sorority, or secret society”
- Committing felony-level criminal mischief
- Assault with no injury, but with the threat of injury, or assault by “provocative physical contact”
- Releasing or threatening to release “intimate visual material” of a minor, or of a student who is over 18 without that student's consent
In addition to these, a student may be assigned to the DAEP if the district superintendent reasonably believes that the student committed a felony off-campus and that the student presents a threat to the safety of other students or school staff.
In other cases, a student “must” be placed in Amarillo's DAEP. These non-discretionary placement situations arise when the student:
- Commits a felony
- Commits a serious assault
- Sells or gives another person or is under the influence of, marijuana, controlled substances, dangerous drugs, or alcohol
- Acts in a way that amounts to the crimes of public lewdness or indecent exposure
- Abuses “volatile chemicals”
- Harasses a school employee in violation of Texas law
- Retaliates against a school employee or volunteer
- Commits an aggravated robbery or felony off school property, receives a deferred prosecution, and is either adjudged a delinquent or the ASID superintendent reasonably believes the student committed the conduct
In cases where the school has the discretion to assign the student to the Amarillo DAEP program or not, it's vitally important to do all you can to make sure your child's rights are respected during the disciplinary process. This also applies in situations where DAEP placement is mandatory because even in those cases, depending on the nature of the behavior, the school may be unfairly making determinations about your child's conduct.
This is where student discipline attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team can help you and your child. School investigations and decisions about the consequences of student conduct are not always conducted in a comprehensive or fair manner. Joseph D. Lento has seen time and time again how busy school administrators can fail to completely investigate misconduct claims and at times make disciplinary decisions that are based on incomplete facts or that are biased. The Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team can help make sure that claims of misconduct are fully investigated and that your child's rights are respected during the entire disciplinary process.
Disciplinary Proceedings and DAEP Placement in Amarillo
If your child is removed from class and the school is considering assigning them to Amarillo's DAEP program, you will be notified, and a conference with a school administrator will be scheduled within three school days. This is a very important conference for you and your child because it's your first and best chance to avoid a DAEP placement.
As soon as you learn about the situation, you should contact student discipline attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team for help. They can work with you and your child to learn as much about the situation as possible, locate helpful witnesses or other evidence that might help your child, and decide how best to present your child's case at the school conference.
The Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team can also make sure the school meets its legal obligation to consider mitigating factors on your child's behalf, including
- Whether your child acted in self-defense
- What your child's intent was (or wasn't) when the alleged misconduct took place
- Your child's disciplinary history, or lack thereof
- Whether your child has a recognized disability that can affect their ability to appreciate the consequences of their actions
What you want to avoid is going into this very important conference unprepared. Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team can help make sure you and your child are ready to defend their rights and present the best case possible for your child to remain at their present school.
If the school administration decides to move forward with a DAEP assignment for your child, you'll receive written notification of that. The decision is called a “placement order.” It will include the length of time your child is assigned to Amarillo's DAEP, and if that period of time is greater than what the usual guidelines the Student Code of Conduct calls for, it will explain the reasons for the additional time.
The maximum DAEP placement period is one year, but the assignment can be longer if “a review by the district determines that the student is a threat to the safety” of students or employees. Otherwise, the length of the student's initial placement is “determined case-by-case.” But if the placement is for more than 60 days, you will have a chance to argue for a shorter period of placement before the ASID Hearing Officer. In that case, their decision about whether to reduce your child's assignment period “is final and may not be appealed.”
Appeals to DAEP Placement in Amarillo
There are three levels of appeals that may apply where your child has received a DAEP assignment.
Level 1 appeals can follow the DAEP assignment and must be filed within 15 days of the date of the placement order. They are normally filed with the school principal, but if the principal is responsible for the placement order, they may be filed as a Level 2 appeal with the ASID Superintendent.
A Level 1 appeal conference must be scheduled within ten school days of receipt, and a decision must be issued within ten school days after the conference.
A Level 2 appeal is the next step if the Level 1 appeal is not successful. This is filed with the ASID Superintendent, and must be done within 10 days of the date of the written Level 1 decision. The Superintendent must schedule a conference within 10 days of receiving the Level 2 appeal and must issue a decision within 10 days of the Level 2 conference.
A Level 3 appeal can follow an unsuccessful Level 2 appeal and is filed with the ASID Board. It must be filed within 10 days of the Level 2 decision, but the Board can delay considering it until a Board meeting. The Board may either make a decision on the Level 3 appeal at that meeting or at any time thereafter up until the next regularly scheduled Board meeting. If it does not respond at all, the decision at Level 2 will stand.
If you are in a situation where you are filing appeals on behalf of your child following a DAEP placement in Amarillo, student discipline attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team can help. They have years of experience representing students involved in similar disciplinary situations all over the country, and they know how to find the legal problems with school administrator placement decisions that can result in a DAEP assignment being overturned.
How a Student Discipline Defense Attorney Can Help Your Child Avoid DAEP Placement in Amarillo
Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team understand the school disciplinary process. They have been helping students across the country who have been charged with serious misconduct violations, and they know that busy school administrators do not always investigate misconduct charges completely or make decisions about the consequences in a fair or reasonable manner. The Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team can help you investigate to learn the rest of the story – the parts the school administrator isn't telling you about – and will make sure that the school is treating your child fairly. Where necessary, they can help you craft effective and forceful appeals and in all cases, will make sure that your child's rights under the law are respected by school officials.
If your child is facing a potential DAEP placement in Amarillo, call Joseph D. Lento today at 888.535.3686, or schedule a confidential consultation using the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team's online form. Time is short when you receive a notice that your child may be assigned to Amarillo's DAEP, so the sooner you reach out, the better!
