The Keller area schools rank among the better school systems in the Fort Worth area. You have every right and reason to highly value your minor student's continued enrollment in the regular Keller schools classroom. But if your student faces Keller area schools disciplinary charges, threatening disciplinary alternative education placement (DAEP), otherwise known as boot camp or reform school, then your student could lose every good advantage of the Keller schools traditional school classroom. DAEP facilities house the unruly and disruptive students that regular Keller area schools expel for drugs, weapons, gang activity, sexual assault, and other violent or endangering offenses. Call 888.535.3686 or use this contact form now to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team out of our Dallas office, if your student faces Keller area school disciplinary charges threatening DAEP. Let us help you keep your student in the regular Keller area school classroom.
Keller Area Schools Student Defense
Our Dallas office's highly skilled and experienced attorneys are available to represent your minor student in any school across the Keller area school system, whether your student attends in Keller, Fort Worth, Haltom City, Watauga, North Richland Hills, Hurst, Colleyville, Southlake, or Westlake. We gladly represent students in all Keller area schools at all levels, including the following programs:
Keller Area High Schools
Central High School in Fort Worth
Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Worth
Keller High School in Keller
Timber Creek High School in Fort Worth
New Direction High School in Keller
Keller Center for Advanced Learning in Keller
Keller Collegiate Academy in Keller
Keller Area Middle Schools
Fossil Hill Middle School in Fort Worth
Hillwood Middle School in Fort Worth
Indian Springs Middle School in Keller
Keller Middle School in Keller
Timberview Middle School in Fort Worth
Trinity Springs Middle School in Fort Worth
Vista Ridge Middle School in Fort Worth
Keller Area Intermediate Schools
Bear Creek Intermediate School in Keller
Parkwood Hill Intermediate School in Fort Worth
Trinity Meadows Intermediate School in Fort Worth
Keller Area Elementary Schools
Basswood Elementary School in Fort Worth
Bette Perot Elementary School in Fort Worth
Bluebonnet Elementary School in Fort Worth
Caprock Elementary School in Fort Worth
Eagle Ridge Elementary School in Fort Worth
Early Learning Center North in Fort Worth
Early Learning Center South in Fort Worth
Florence Elementary School in Southlake
Freedom Elementary School in Fort Worth
Friendship Elementary School in Fort Worth
Heritage Elementary School in Fort Worth
Hidden Lakes Elementary School in Keller
Independence Elementary School in Fort Worth
Keller-Harvel Elementary School in Keller
Liberty Elementary School in Colleyville
Lone Star Elementary School in Fort Worth
North Riverside Elementary School in Fort Worth
Park Glen Elementary School in Fort Worth
Parkview Elementary School in Fort Worth
Ridgeview Elementary School in Keller
Shady Grove Elementary School in Keller
Sunset Valley Elementary School in Fort Worth
Whitley Road Elementary School in Watauga
Willis Lane Elementary School in Keller
Woodland Springs Elementary School in Fort Worth
Texas DAEP Law and the Keller Area DAEP Program
Texas Education Code Chapter 37, Subchapter A, authorizes Texas independent school districts to maintain disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEP) for students needing more behavior management than the regular classroom can provide. Texas Education Code Section 37.008 provides for DAEP removal of unruly, dangerous, or disruptive students. Keller Independent School District takes advantage of that state authorization for disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEP) by maintaining the Keller Compass Center and its New Direction High School. The Keller Compass Center's mission page expressly states, “DAEP is an alternative education program for students who violate a district's Student Code of Conduct or certain other offenses.” Keller area students found to have violated the district's Code of Conduct & Student Handbook behavioral provisions may find themselves removed from their regular classroom and attending the Keller Compass Center's New Direction High School or other DAEP programs with other unruly, dangerous, and disruptive students.
Keller Area DAEP Program Challenges
The University of Texas at Austin's Education Review journal published a study of Texas DAEP programs confirming the challenges they face in educating their troubled student population. The study showed that only 44% of first-time DAEP enrollees graduate from DAEP within four years. That graduation rate declines to only 25% of DAEP enrollees referred a second or subsequent time. Considering that 84% of Texas regular school students graduate, DAEP graduation rates are pretty dismal. Your student's Keller area school officials may speak glowingly of the Keller Compass Center. Yet take anything they say with more than a grain of salt. Do not let them pressure you into consenting to your student's DAEP referral. Instead, let us help you and your student defend and defeat Keller area school DAEP removal charges.
Keller Area Code of Conduct & Student Handbook
Texas Education Code Sections 37.006, 37.007, and 37.008 specify grounds for DAEP referral. Keller area schools have followed other Texas school districts in adopting a Code of Conduct & Student Handbook providing for removals to DAEP. If your student faces disciplinary charges threatening DAEP removal, your student's school officials likely brought those charges under the Keller ISD Code of Conduct. Our attorneys can help you and your student interpret and apply the Code of Conduct's substantive and procedural provisions to defend and defeat your student's disciplinary charges.
Keller Area Grounds for DAEP Removal
Keller ISD's Code of Conduct expands on the statutory grounds for DAEP removal in its General Types of Prohibited Conduct section. That section lists dozens of specific violations of the Code of Conduct, organized into several categories. Those categories include misconduct involving others like bullying and hazing, possessing prohibited items like drugs and alcohol, misuse of property such as stealing or vandalism, safety and disruption offenses like pulling false fire alarms and brandishing weapons, technology offenses like sending obscene images or misusing artificial intelligence, failing to follow rules like insubordination and unexcused tardiness, and miscellaneous offenses like using profanity or loitering. A later section of the Keller ISD Code of Conduct calls any of these offenses grounds for DAEP removal. Our attorneys can defend your student against any of the above Keller area schools disciplinary charges.
Keller Area Discretionary DAEP
Because the above Texas Education Code sections authorize either discretionary or mandatory DAEP, the Keller ISD's Code of Conduct likewise defines both discretionary DAEP and mandatory DAEP. Discretionary DAEP simply means that your student's Keller area school officials get to decide whether your student must suffer DAEP placement or may instead remain in the regular classroom with some lesser form of discipline, such as reprimand or loss of privileges. The Keller area schools' discretionary DAEP grounds include:
- engaging in persistent misbehavior;
- bullying a student into a suicide attempt;
- group bullying inciting student violence;
- sharing intimate depictions of a student without consent;
- participating in a fraternity, sorority, secret society, or gang;
- engaging in criminal street gang activity;
- committing misdemeanor or felony mischief;
- committing assault, threatening imminent injury;
- committing assault involving offensive or provocative contact.
Keller Area Mandatory DAEP
Texas Education Code Sections 37.006 and 37.007 require DAEP for other forms of student misconduct that go beyond the above discretionary DAEP grounds in terms of reprehensibility. The Keller ISD Code of Conduct accordingly authorizes those same mandatory DAEP grounds. Mandatory DAEP suggests that your student's Keller area school officials have no choice but to send your student to DAEP. Yet they must first find that your student committed the alleged mandatory DAEP wrong. Our attorneys may be able to defend the charges, showing that your student did not commit the alleged wrong, or convince school officials to charge a lesser wrong not worthy of DAEP because of the uncertainty of proof of misconduct. The Keller ISD Code of Conduct's mandatory DAEP grounds include the following:
- felony crime on school property;
- assault causing bodily injury;
- delivery or possession of drugs or alcohol on school grounds;
- delivery or possession of e-cigarettes on school grounds;
- harassing school employees in a specific manner;
- lewdness or indecent exposure on school grounds;
- false fire alarms or terroristic threats;
- registered sex offenses; or
- certain forms of retaliation against school employees.
Keller Area DAEP Defenses
Depending on your student's case facts and circumstances, we may be able to pursue one or more of the following defenses to your student's Keller area schools disciplinary charges threatening DAEP removal. The witnesses on whom school officials rely for their misconduct allegations may not have personally observed what they report and may instead be relying on guess, conjecture, or hearsay. The complaining witnesses may instead be casting false aspersions to cover up their own wrongs, or they may be retaliating against your student for refusing to participate in the wrongs or for threatening to report them. Complaining witnesses can also be mistaken as to the circumstances, misconstruing innocent conduct for serious wrongs. Our attorney's cross-examination of adverse witnesses and their contradiction with more-reliable evidence may establish their lack of credibility, conflict of interest, bias, or other ulterior motive. Your student may also have been acting out in response to unlawful bullying, hazing, or harassment by others. Let us advocate all available defenses.
Keller Area DAEP Mitigating Factors
Texas Education Code Section 37.001 further requires Keller area school disciplinary officials to consider other mitigating factors whenever seeking to impose DAEP as a misconduct sanction. The statutory mitigating factors include acting in self-defense, acting without the intent that the violation requires, having no prior disciplinary history, suffering under a mental disability preventing appreciation of the violation, being under a conservatorship in foster care, or being homeless. Your student's age, physical or mental disability, maturity or immaturity, injury or illness, and other characteristics may present other mitigating factors that our attorneys can argue.
Keller Area DAEP Placement Hearing
Texas Education Code Section 37.0081 ordinarily requires a formal hearing if Keller area school disciplinary officials intend to seek DAEP placement. Texas Education Code Section 37.009 articulates the hearing requirements. The Keller ISD's Code of Conduct also promises a hearing while outlining the required hearing procedures. Our attorneys have the considerable skills and experience to effectively invoke these hearing procedures for your student's greatest advantage. We prepare you for testifying at the hearing. We can cross-examine adverse witnesses if district practices permit it and otherwise challenge adverse evidence.
Keller Area Emergency DAEP Placement
If Keller area school officials remove your student for DAEP emergency placement without a hearing, under Texas Education Code Section 37.019, authorizing emergency removal before a hearing, we can seek a post-removal hearing to raise your student's defenses. Section 37.019 requires a post-removal hearing if the DAEP removal lasts more than ten days.
Keller Area DAEP Appeal
Texas Education Code Section 37.009 further provides for the appeal of an adverse DAEP decision. The Keller ISD's Code of Conduct designates the building principal for the initial appeal and the district's Student Services Director for the final appeal of the DAEP decision. If you and your student have already lost your student's formal hearing, let our attorneys prepare and pursue your student's appeal to obtain a reversal of the DAEP decision.
Alternative Special Relief
If you and your student have already lost all appeals, then let our attorneys seek alternative special relief through the Keller area schools' general counsel's office or through outside retained counsel. We have good relationships and a reputation among general counsel, outside retained counsel, and other district and state oversight officials, to open informal lines of communication. We can sometimes show those oversight officials the wisdom of providing reinstatement to the regular classroom rather than sticking with unnecessary, harsh, and arguably unlawful sanctions. Civil court relief may alternatively be available.
Premier Keller Area Schools DAEP Defense
If your student faces school disciplinary charges in the Keller, Texas area, threatening your student with disciplinary alternative placement, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team out of our Dallas office for your student's skilled and experienced defense. Our attorneys help hundreds of students across Texas and nationwide successfully defend and defeat school disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now. Learn more details here about Texas DAEP matters.
