Kids are wired to make mistakes. It's actually an evolutionary advantage. Human beings need to learn things in their early years, and the best way to learn is to screw up. If you're a parent, you know this first hand. Your kids make more than their fair share of mistakes. Most educators understand this, too. Teachers, administrators, and staff are trained to recognize that mistakes are just a part of learning.
Unfortunately, not all educators are created equal. You and your child will come across teachers who punish students simply because they don't know how to teach. You will encounter administrators who issue harsh sanctions when a warning, detention, or an educational punishment would serve better.
There are punishments, though, and then there are punishments. If anyone is trying to place your child in a DAEP, it's imperative you contact the Lento Law Firm immediately. These programs often cause students serious, long-term harm. You may consider the Alief Independent School District to be on your side most of the time. Nothing wrong with that. If a DAEP has been mentioned, though, the district is no longer on your side. You need someone who is. You need an attorney from the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team.
Don't risk your child's future. Call the Lento Law Firm today at 888-535-3686 to find out how we can help with DAEP issues. Or, take the time right now to reach out to us online.
What is DAEP?
Let's start with the basics. Often, parents whose children are being threatened with DAEP aren't even aware such programs exist.
DAEP stands for "disciplinary alternative education programs." These programs are sometimes referred to, especially by students, as "alternative schools." All Texas school districts must have an affiliation with some DAEP. Many districts share such programs, with several schools feeding them. The Alief Independent School District, however, maintains its own DAEP, known as the Alief Learning Center (ALC).
Initially, DAEPs were established by the Texas state legislature in 1995 to deal with students who had violated statewide disciplinary policies, rules actually written into state law. It is a felony, for instance, for students to possess weapons on school grounds. Likewise, drug possession and distribution is illegal on all K-12 campuses. Prior to 1995, students who broke such laws were frequently expelled from campus. DAEP legislation created spaces in which such students could continue to learn without causing danger or disruption to other students.
Districts sometimes utilize DAEP effectively, hiring teachers and administrators who are specially trained to deal with at-risk youth and implementing educational programs that make use of innovative teaching approaches to target students who need specialized, individualized help. Unfortunately, investing in such resources is expensive, and most districts don't have the funding to properly equip alternative schools with the faculty and materials they need.
As a result, DAEP has, more often than not, become a kind of dumping ground for kids that teachers and administrators don't know how to control. Rather than find positive solutions, districts label such children "problem students" and simply send them to alternative schools. No surprise, then, that DAEPs have developed negative reputations throughout the state of Texas. No one wants to be there. Teachers are sent there as punishment, so these programs wind up filled with poor educators. Students who are placed in them fall farther and farther behind academically, creating a cycle of failure.
We'll explore the negative impact of DAEPs a little more below. The bottom line, though, is that any time the Alief Independent District threatens your child with ALC placement, it's in your child's best interest to fight. Fighting is never easy. School districts are complex, powerful entities. You're not alone, though. The attorneys at the Lento Law Firm know what you're up against. We know the law, and we'll use the law to fight for your family's rights.
How Do You Wind Up in Alief's DAEP Program?
Again, state law dictates that certain offenses always result in DAEP placement. These include
- Creating a false alarm or issuing a terroristic threat;
- Certain acts of bullying;
- Committing a felony within 300 feet of school grounds;
- Committing an assault within 300 feet of school grounds;
- Possessing, Using, Selling, delivering, or giving illegal drugs within 300 feet of school grounds;
- Public lewdness and other sexual misconduct.
Keep in mind, however, that even in these mandated cases, the law contains some important exceptions that could keep your child out of DAEP. Children under the age of six, for instance, cannot be sent to DAEP unless they have brought a firearm to school. Children are to be kept with children of their own age. And the state of Texas recognizes that self-defense can be grounds for committing acts of violence.
The real problem with Texas' DAEP law, though, is that it doesn't apply just to students who have violated some state education statute. It also grants school districts discretionary power to send students to the ALC whenever they feel it is "necessary." Teachers can refuse to let students back into class over a wide variety of offenses, serious and otherwise. The Alief Independent School District's Student Handbook lists dozens of rules and regulations about all sorts of activities:
- Tobacco usage
- Modes of dress
- Vandalism
- Theft
- Alcohol
- Bullying
- Drugs
- Weapons
- Participation in fraternities, sororities, cliques, and gangs
- General disruption of school activities
- Harassment
- Hazing
- Electronic devices
- Public displays of affection
- Sexual harassment
Once a student has been kicked out of class, for whatever reason, DAEP becomes the logical next option. In theory, a teacher or administrator might decide to place a student in DAEP on their own initiative for violating any aspect of school policy. While there are protections in place that we'll examine below, those protections don't always work as they should. Even a minor offense could put a student into DAEP.
How the ALC Works
The ALC, Alief's DAEP program, is supposed to be dedicated to helping students "make the behavioral changes necessary to enable them to return to their home campuses and be successful both academically and behaviorally." To that end, the program utilizes "restorative circles" meant to provide students with social skills, behavioral skills, and conflict resolution skills.
Without question, though, the ALC is a much starker environment than a mainstream classroom. Students are prohibited, for instance, from communicating in any way in ALC hallways. They are barred from attending ordinary school events, including athletic events. They may not bring makeup, candy, jewelry, purses, backpacks, pens, or more than $5 to campus. The school even dictates what kinds of socks they can wear.
The Downsides of DAEP
Even if DAEPs like the ALC functioned in every way they should, they would remain a danger to students. That's because of the nature of so-called "exclusionary discipline." Study after study has shown that alternative school settings, where students are "excluded" from their peers, can have serious and long-term negative consequences, even for students who spend only a small amount of time in them.
- Substandard Quality of Education: One investigation found that nearly half of all alternative schools in the US have graduation rates below 50 percent. In comparison, mainstream high schools graduate, on average, 94 percent of their students. Strong teachers often fight to avoid assignment to an alternative school, so schools wind up staffed by burned-out, under-qualified faculty. Even a short time in one of these programs can put a child behind, making it difficult or impossible for them to rejoin their peers in mainstream classrooms. Over the long term, students who attend alternative schools regularly aren't prepared to go to college or find a well-paying job once they graduate.
- Attendance Issues: Even if a district invests the money to hire experts in at-risk youth education, alternative schools struggle. Students are ashamed to be sent to these programs, and attendance is always low. There may be genuine problem-students in these programs, and those students can actually present a danger to their classmates. These kinds of problems necessarily have negative impacts on the quality of classroom instructions and students' ability to focus on their studies.
- Criminalizing School Misconduct: In practice, forcing students to attend alternative schools like ALC is comparable to forcing students into reform schools. Again, studies have shown that such exclusionary discipline causes these students to see themselves as criminals. Other students, teachers, and members of the broader community come to regard them as such as well.
- Discipline is Unfair: One of the biggest dangers to any alternative school program is that, just as in the US criminal justice system, minorities inevitably wind up being treated unfairly. A study by the US Department of Justice, for instance, found that “African-American students and those with educational disabilities were disproportionately more likely to be removed from the classroom for disciplinary reasons.”
- Repeat Assignments to Alternative School: In 2009, the Intercultural Developmental Research Association (IDRA) found that one in three alternative school students had previous experience in the alternative school program. What this suggests is that, despite its stated aims, programs like the ALC aren't effective at getting students back into mainstream classrooms.
- High Dropout Rates: Students in alternative schools are more likely to drop out and less likely to graduate high school.
- Contact With the Juvenile Justice System: Exclusionary discipline—removing students from mainstream classrooms, has actually been labeled a “criminal justice pipeline” by education experts. Students subjected to alternative classrooms are disproportionately more likely to wind up in trouble with the juvenile justice system and far more likely to face criminal charges in later life than their peers.
Alief faculty and administrators will try and tell you that DAEP assignment is in your child's best interests. Don't believe them. The Lento Law Firm can help you fight to protect your children.
Due Process Protections
You and your child have some important due process protections in the Alief district under Texas educational law. For example, within three days of being removed from the classroom, a student and their family must be allowed a conference with the teacher and the administrator who has recommended ALC placement. At this meeting, the student is allowed to give their side of the story. The administrator must act within the context of the Alief District's established Code of Conduct in assigning the period to be spent at the ALC. And you have the right to appeal the administrator's decision to the district's board of trustees.
If your child has any type of disability, including a learning disability like ADD or ADHD, the district is required by state law to undertake an evaluation of whether or not their disability may have played any role in their offense.
Finally, it's important to keep in mind some general facts about you and your child's rights.
- Your child's right to an education is enshrined in the Bill of Rights. No one, including the Alief Independent School District and the state of Texas, can deny your child that right. Further, that education must be equal to that of their peers.
- Your child has a right to due process. No teacher, administrator, school, or district can accuse them and punish them without providing some type of proof that they've committed misconduct and giving them the opportunity to respond to this proof.
- Even if your child did make a mistake, it does not mean they deserve to be mistreated or to suffer a sanction that is disproportionate to their mistake. There is clear evidence that placement in a DAEP program is necessarily a disproportionate sanction for most if not all, disciplinary offenses.
It is your job to protect your child--to ensure their rights are protected and they are given fair access to an education. As part of that job, it's important that you stay aware of what's happening with them. Kids don't always want to tell their parents what's going on at school, especially if they're in some kind of trouble. Encourage them to talk to you and look for other ways to find out about what they're up to.
Insist that your child's school provides concrete evidence any time your child is accused of misconduct. Don't take a teacher's or an administrator's word for it.
Keep a close eye on your child's permanent record. Even a warning can keep them out of college if it should appear on that record. You have rights as a parent. Don't let the Alief Independent School District bully you into believing otherwise.
What to Do
In a practical sense, what do you do if someone is threatening to send your child to the ALC or some other DAEP? Three things.
- First, take the situation seriously. It may seem like an exaggeration to say that your child's future—as a student, as a person—is at stake in this process. It's not. Exclusionary discipline can cost them their education, limit their career possibilities, and even raise the likelihood that they'll eventually wind up in jail. Find out everything you can about the charges. Make sure you know how Alief's judicial processes work. Contact an attorney to protect your family's rights.
- Don't let your emotions get the better of you. Take the situation seriously, but avoid arguing with teachers, administrators, and other district personnel or making threats. This kind of reaction won't help the situation and could make it significantly worse. Remain calm. You should fight for your child's future, but the way you do that is to make sure they have the best possible attorney.
- Choose the right attorney. The situation is serious and complex, but it's also relatively unique. You're not dealing with a court of law. You're dealing with a school district and its personnel. A local or family attorney won't do. They won't know how the process works, and they won't have the experience of defending students. Trust a Lento Law Firm to protect you and ensure you're treated fairly.
The Lento Law Firm Can Help
The Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team was founded to protect student rights. We know the law, and we know how the Alief Independent School District operates. Most importantly, we care about what happens to you and your family. We'll fight using every resource at our disposal to get you the best possible outcome.
We're always on your side. To find out what we can do for you, contact the Lento Law Firm today at 888-535-3686. Or, fill out our online questionnaire.
