League City, Texas area schools, whether in the Clear Creek Independent School District or another Galveston County school district, can send your student to disciplinary alternative education placement (DAEP) if your student violates any school rule. School removal to DAEP boot camp or reform school should only be for the most serious offenders but can be a convenient dumping ground for lazy school officials who are unwilling to address student rights and needs within the traditional classroom. Call 888.535.3686 or use this contact form now to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team out of our Houston office if your student faces League City area DAEP charges. Protect your student's rights and future.
League City Area Schools Student Defense
Effective defense of League City area school DAEP charges requires our skilled and experienced attorneys' representation, not the representation of an unqualified local criminal defense attorney or personal injury attorney. Academic and administrative disciplinary matters differ markedly from court proceedings. We are available to defend your student's DAEP charges in all League City area schools, whether in the League City Independent School District, Galveston Independent School District, Dickinson Independent School District, Friendswood Independent School District, High Island Independent School District, Hitchcock Independent School District, Santa Fe Independent School District, or Texas City Independent School District. We are also available in these other Galveston County special school programs: O'Connell College Preparatory School, Trinity Episcopal School, Holy Family Catholic School, Upward Hope Academy, Odyssey Academy, and Ambassadors Prep Academy. We can represent students in all Clear Creek (League City) ISD elementary schools and these high schools and intermediate schools:
Clear Creek ISD High Schools
- Clear Brook High School;
- Clear Creek High School;
- Clear Falls High School;
- Clear Horizons Early College High School;
- Clear Lake High School;
- Clear Springs High School;
- Clear View High School.
Clear Creek ISD Intermediate Schools
- Bayside Intermediate;
- Brookside Intermediate;
- Clear Creek Intermediate;
- Clear Lake Intermediate;
- Creekside Intermediate;
- League City Intermediate;
- Seabrook Intermediate;
- Space Center Intermediate;
- Victory Lakes Intermediate;
- Westbrook Intermediate.
League City Area Schools DAEP Programs
Texas Education Code Section 37.008 requires ISDs across the state, including those in the League City area, to maintain disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEPs). Removing disruptive and dangerous students to DAEP placement serves both to punish students for serious wrongs and to preserve a safe and orderly school environment. The Clear Creek (League City) ISD maintains the Clear Path Alternative School as its secondary-level DAEP program at 1001 Magnolia Avenue in Webster to meet its Section 37.008 obligation. Students in the Clear Path Alternative School have a strict dress code. The Clear Creek (League City) ISD also offers a virtual alternative program called Clear Access and Clear Stars. While school officials laud these alternative programs, beware when school officials urge you to consent to your student's transfer to the DAEP program. DAEP graduation and advancement rates are generally much lower than traditional school programs. Your student would attend with other students found to have committed serious wrongs potentially involving gangs, weapons, drugs, alcohol, felony crime, and violence. Let us help you preserve your student's traditional school program against DAEP charges.
League City Area Schools Student Code of Conduct
Under Texas Education Code Section 37.001, Clear Creek (League City) ISD schools, like the schools in other Galveston County school districts, may send disruptive students to DAEP placement for violating the district student conduct code. Texas Education Code Sections 37.006 and 37.007 mandate DAEP program placement for certain especially serious wrongs. The Clear Creek (League City) ISD has adopted a Student Code of Conduct, covering all ISD schools at all K-12 levels and providing for DAEP placement for a long list of misconduct violations. Do not minimize or ignore your student's disciplinary charges. They could lead to DAEP placement. Let us help you and your student defend and defeat the charges.
League City Area Schools Removal Grounds
Disciplinary matters leading to DAEP removal typically begin with one or more short-term school removals. The Clear Creek (League City) ISD Student Code of Conduct lists General Conduct Violations, any of which may result in school removal and out-of-school suspension. We can help you defend League City area school disciplinary charges threatening your student's school removal. Those grounds under the Clear Creek (League City) ISD Student Code of Conduct for school removal include:
- safety threats from horseplay, roughhousing, kicking, fighting, slugging, shoving, and scuffling, whether or not causing injury;
- blackmail or other coercion or duress in any form, the purpose of which is to force another to act against their will;
- hazing, harassing, intimidating, inciting, disrupting, bullying, or cyberbullying;
- inappropriate sexual contact with others, whether or not consensual, engaging in obscenity, vulgarity, or profanity, or recording or sharing intimate visual images of another without consent;
- possession of alcohol, drugs, drug paraphernalia, weapons, pornography, or tobacco products in the school;
- trespassing, theft, or vandalizing or destroying property belonging to the school or others;
- causing false fire alarms or interfering with the working of fire alarms, extinguishers, or smoke detectors;
- misuse of electronic devices, sites, or files, including access without school authorization;
- disobedience or insubordination toward school personnel, dress code violations, and inappropriate grooming;
- presenting false identification or refusing to show authentic identification when school personnel request or
- academic dishonesty, including cheating, plagiarism, or altering or destroying school records.
League City Area Schools Discretionary DAEP
Texas Education Code Section 37.001 gives League City area school officials permission to pursue DAEP placement as a discretionary remedy for disruptive school behavior. The Clear Creek (League City) ISD Student Code of Conduct expressly authorizes DAEP placement only for one or more of the following long list of specified behaviors:
- robbery or theft;
- sexual contact or conduct;
- sexual harassment or sexual abuse;
- possessing look-alike drugs or guns;
- abusing prescription drugs;
- possessing controlled substances or drug paraphernalia;
- being under the influence of intoxicating substances;
- repeated misbehavior after in-school suspension;
- vandalism or misdemeanor criminal mischief;
- possessing pornography;
- sexting or sharing sexually graphic images;
- gang activity;
- weapons, ammunition, or fireworks possession;
- bullying, harassing, or threatening the safety of any student;
- computer security breaches;
- disrupting school athletics or performances and
- trespassing.
Our attorneys can help you and your student fight, defend, and defeat these permissive DAEP placement charges.
League City Area Schools Mandatory DAEP
Beyond the above permissive DAEP placement, Texas Education Code Sections 37.006 and 37.007 further require DAEP placement for more serious misconduct. The Clear Creek (League City) ISD Student Code of Conduct repeats and incorporates the statutes' mandatory DAEP provisions. The legislative intention of these mandatory DAEP placement provisions is to take away official discretion to ensure the removal of all students committing these especially serious forms of misconduct. But don't mistake a mandatory DAEP charge for a mandatory DAEP finding. A charge, even of a mandatory DAEP wrong, remains only an allegation. We can help you and your student defend mandatory DAEP charges. The above statutes and the Clear Creek (League City) ISD Student Code of Conduct include these mandatory DAEP grounds:
- bomb threats, terroristic threats, or false fire alarms;
- intentionally or recklessly assaulting and injuring another;
- committing a felony crime on school property;
- possessing illegal drugs, alcohol, e-cigarettes, or firearms in school;
- being impaired by drugs, alcohol, or marijuana while in school;
- engaging in lewd activity or indecent exposure in school;
- criminally assaulting or harassing another at school;
- committing conduct equal to a felony crime in school;
- aggravated robbery at school;
- criminal retaliation against school personnel;
- sexually assaulting another student in school or
- sexually abusing a child or disabled person continuously.
League City Area Schools DAEP Defenses
Once again, Clear Creek (League City) ISD disciplinary charges do not mean that school officials have already found that your student has done something wrong deserving of DAEP placement. Charges are allegations, not findings. Your student has the right to employ us to raise and advocate your student's defenses. Depending on the charges and your student's circumstances, our attorneys may be able to prove that:
- no misconduct occurred;
- someone other than your student committed the misconduct;
- adverse witnesses lack first-hand observations;
- adverse witnesses have poor memory and are confused;
- adverse witnesses have illicit motives to cover up and retaliate;
- your student was unaware of the factual circumstances;
- your student was innocent of mind and intentions;
- your student was reasonably mistaken under the circumstances;
- your student promptly rectified the wrong when learning of it;
- your student's conduct harmed no one and interfered with nothing;
- your student's discipline is unnecessary to safeguard the school and
- your student's discipline is unnecessary to punish or correct behavior
League City Area Schools DAEP Mitigating Factors
Our attorneys may alternatively be able to make a compelling case to eliminate, reduce, or mitigate any sanction. We may be able to work with you and your student to address your student's behavior in ways that assure school officials of your student's sound character and safety. We may instead be able to show school officials that your student acted entirely out of character due to a one-time severe stress since corrected. We may alternatively be able to show that your student had an undiagnosed physical or mental condition or disability causing the issue or even that the school failed in its obligation to protect your student from bullying, harassment, or discrimination or accommodate your student's disability. Texas Education Code Section 37.001 further requires Clear Creek (League City) ISD officials to consider these other statutory mitigating factors in any case for mandatory or permissive DAEP placement, as the Clear Creek (League City) ISD Student Code of Conduct recognizes:
- your student committed the alleged misconduct in self-defense;
- your student lacked guilty knowledge or wrongful intent;
- your student had no disciplinary record until this incident;
- your student had a disability that triggered the wrong or
- your student suffered homelessness or was in foster care.
League City Area Schools Emergency Placement
When a student's disruptive behavior seriously interferes with instruction or school operations, Texas Education Code Section 37.019 authorizes Clear Creek (League City) ISD officials to remove the student on an emergency basis before the parent or student has notice and an opportunity to contest the disciplinary charges. The Clear Creek (League City) ISD Student Code of Conduct adopts that emergency placement authority. Under that provision, your student's League City area school may remove your student for up to ten days before offering your student a hearing to avoid longer-term removal and DAEP placement. We can invoke this hearing right to advocate for your student's prompt reinstatement.
League City Area Schools DAEP Placement Hearing
Texas Education Code Sections 37.009 and 37.019 guarantee that your student will have the right to a formal hearing to dispute the DAEP charge and placement if your student invokes that hearing right. We can help your student do so, both strategically and effectively, to make the best case for your student's retention in the regular classroom.
League City Area Schools DAEP Appeal
If, instead, your student has already lost the hearing, we are available in the League City area schools to invoke your student's statutory appeal rights. Texas Education Code Section 37.009 grants your student an appeal of any DAEP placement. Appeals go first to the school district board. If the board affirms the DAEP placement, you have a second appeal to the Galveston County district court. Our attorneys can help you make your most compelling appeal to reverse a DAEP placement.
Alternative Special Relief
Our attorneys also have the reputation and relationships to reach and sensitively advocate with Clear Creek (League City) ISD oversight officials, even if your student has lost all hearings and appeals and is seeking reinstatement in the regular classroom. We may be able to diplomatically raise other regulatory, liability, reputational, and educational interests in gaining your student reinstatement.
Premier League City Area DAEP Defense
If your student faces DAEP charges in the League City, Texas area, retain the Lento Law Firm's highly qualified Student Defense Team out of our Houston office. We represent clients throughout Galveston County and surrounding areas. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now. Learn more details here about Texas DAEP matters.
