Your student in a Lewisville, Texas, area school, including not only the Lewisville Independent School District but also other Denton County school districts, runs the same risk of disciplinary alternative education placement (DAEP) as students face in other districts across Texas. DAEP means reform school or boot camp, where students with gang, drug, alcohol, and assault violations go when their regular school can no longer tolerate them. Your student has every hope and dream on the line when facing DAEP charges. Call 888.535.3686 or use this contact form now to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team to help your student defend and defeat those charges to remain in the regular classroom. Your student needs our skilled and experienced representation. The highly qualified attorneys out of our Dallas office are ready to take on your student's Lewisville ISD school disciplinary defense.
Lewisville Area Schools Student Defense
Our Student Defense Team attorneys represent students across the Lewisville area, including not only in the Lewisville Independent School District and Denton Independent School District but also in other Denton County school districts like the Argyle Independent School District, Aubrey Independent School District, Krum Independent School District, Lake Dallas Independent School District, Northwest Independent School District, Little ElmIndependent School District, Pilot Point Independent School District, Ponder Independent School District, and Sanger Independent School District. We can also help students in the Lewisville area Leadership Prep School, North Texas Collegiate Academy, and Trivium Academy. We can represent your student in any of the dozens of Lewisville ISD elementary schools or in the following Lewisville ISD high schools, middle schools, and specialty programs:
Lewisville ISD High Schools
- Flower Mound High School;
- Hebron High School;
- Lewisville High School;
- Marcus High School;
- The Colony High School.
Lewisville ISD 9th & 10th Grade Schools
- Flower Mound 9th Grade Campus;
- Hebron 9th Grade Campus;
- Lewisville High School Harmon;
- Lewisville High School Killough;
- Marcus 9th Grade Campus.
Lewisville ISD Middle Schools
- Arbor Creek Middle School;
- Briarhill Middle School;
- Creek Valley Middle School;
- DeLay Middle School;
- Downing Middle School;
- Durham Middle School;
- Forestwood Middle School;
- Griffin Middle School;
- Hedrick Middle School;
- Huffines Middle School;
- Killian Middle School;
- Lakeview Middle School;
- Lamar Middle School;
- McKamy Middle School;
- Shadow Ridge Middle School.
Lewisville ISD Specialty Programs
- Lewisville Learning Center;
- Student Success Center;
- TECC-E (Career Center);
- TECC- W (Career Center);
- Virtual Learning Academy.
Lewisville ISD DAEP Programs
DAEP programs are in operation across the Lewisville ISD, as Texas education laws require. A DAEP program's purpose is to house and educate students whom the regular schools cannot tolerate without seriously interfering with their instruction or operation. Texas Education Code Section 37.008 authorizes the removal of an unruly, disruptive, or dangerous student to a disciplinary alternative education program (DAEP) school. The Lewisville ISD maintains several DAEP programs to meet the state's removal requirements. The Lewisville ISD offers the ADAPT and HOPE DAEP programs in several of the district's schools, the CHOICES program at 495 West Corporate Drive in Lewisville and the Lewisville Learning Center at 1601 South Edmonds Lane in Lewisville. School officials will generally speak glowingly of these DAEP programs. They may urge, implore, or demand that you consent to your student's transfer to a DAEP program. However, the students in DAEP schools have generally committed serious drug, gang, alcohol, assault, or sexual misconduct offenses. DAEP programs generally have poor retention and graduation statistics. Don't let school officials make a statistic out of your students. Let us help you keep your student in the regular classroom and school.
Lewisville ISD Student Codes of Conduct
Both Texas education laws and Lewisville ISD conduct codes will govern your student's DAEP proceeding. Texas Education Code Sections 37.006, 37.007, and 37.008 authorize DAEP program placement under many different circumstances. The Lewisville ISD's Student Code of Conduct follows and amplifies those statutes, authorizing DAEP placement under a very wide range of circumstances. Whatever school officials may represent to you, you have a say in whether your student stays in the regular classroom or must go to a DAEP school. We can help you and your student defend Lewisville ISD DAEP charges to keep your student in the regular school.
Lewisville ISD Grounds for Removal
Lewisville ISD school officials must assert lawful grounds to remove a student from one of the district's several DAEP programs. Texas Education Code Sections 37.006, 37.007, and 37.008 authorize many grounds for DAEP program placement. The Lewisville ISD Student Code of Conduct adopts many of those same statutory grounds while adding a very long list of General Conduct Violations that authorize school officials to remove your student to a DAEP placement. To give you a flavor of those wrongs, the Lewisville ISD Student Code of Conduct groups its hundreds of General Conduct Violations under headings that include disregarding authority, mistreating others, damaging property, possessing prohibited items, dealing with drugs, misusing school technology and internet, and school safety issues. Our attorneys are available to defend against DAEP placement on any ground, no matter how trivial or serious.
Lewisville ISD Discretionary DAEP
Texas Education Code Section 37.001 gives Lewisville ISD school officials discretion to remove for DAEP placement. Discretionary DAEP placement means that the school officials get to decide whether to pursue DAEP placement or to let your student remain in the regular classroom with other, lesser disciplinary sanctions. You and your student may still challenge a discretionary DAEP placement with our committed and effective representation. The Lewisville ISD Student Code of Conduct authorizes discretionary DAEP placement for any General Conduct Violation, meaning any major or minor wrong under the Student Code of Conduct. The Lewisville ISD Student Code of Conduct goes on to list these additional statutory grounds for discretionary DAEP placement:
- intentional or reckless injury of another;
- bullying a student into a suicide attempt;
- group bullying triggering violence;
- felony or misdemeanor criminal mischief;
- sharing intimate visual material without consent;
- fraternity, sorority, secret society, or street gang involvement.
Lewisville ISD Mandatory DAEP
Other cases require Lewisville ISD school officials to pursue DAEP placement. Texas Education Code Sections 37.006 and 37.007 list the forms of misconduct that mandate DAEP placement. Out of those mandatory statutory grounds for DAEP placement, the Lewisville ISD's Student Code of Conduct adopts the following mandatory DAEP grounds:
- committing a felony crime;
- committing a criminal assault;
- delivering controlled substances;
- delivering marijuana or THC;
- delivering alcoholic beverages;
- delivering e-cigarettes;
- abusing volatile chemicals;
- criminal harassment of school personnel;
- lewdness or indecent exposure offenses;
- possessing a knife with a long blade;
- criminal retaliation against school personnel;
- continuous sexual abuse of a minor or disabled person.
Just because Sections 37.006 and 37.007, as well as the Lewisville ISD Student Code of Conduct, call these violations “mandatory” DAEP placement offenses does not mean that you and your student cannot fight them. You and your student have the same right with discretionary DAEP placement offenses to contest the disciplinary grounds and to make a case to mitigate and eliminate the DAEP placement. We can help you do so to the best effect.
Lewisville ISD DAEP Defenses
Texas Education Code is replete with protective procedures that our attorneys can invoke to raise your student's defenses to a DAEP placement. The Lewisville ISD Student Code of Conduct has its own hearing procedures for DAEP matters. Those procedures enable us to present your student's exonerating and mitigating evidence at a hearing and to challenge the school's incriminating evidence, whether through cross-examination or other means. The defenses our attorneys raise and advocate depending on your student's facts and circumstances. But the following are common defenses in student disciplinary matters involving DAEP sanctions:
- the school-based its allegations on the guess, speculation, and conjecture of witnesses who lack the required first-hand knowledge or observation for admissible testimony;
- the school's witnesses lack credibility because of their interest, bias, or motive to conceal their own wrongs and blame your student for them or to retaliate against your student;
- computer forensic or handwriting analysis shows that complaining witnesses have misidentified your student as the wrongdoer;
- your student was reasonably mistaken as to the appropriateness of the alleged actions and corrected those actions as soon as discovering the circumstances;
- your student reasonably followed the direction of teachers, administrators, or aides, creating a safe harbor against misconduct charges;
- your student's actions caused no disruption of teaching or operations and did not harm any person or damage any property;
- your student's actions were the result of a sudden and unexpected illness, stress, or disability not of your student's own making, since corrected and therefore unlikely to repeat.
Lewisville ISD DAEP Mitigating Factors
In any case, involving potential DAEP placement, Texas Education Code Section 37.001 requires Lewisville ISD school officials to consider mitigating factors that may eliminate the DAEP penalty. The Lewisville ISD Student Code of Conduct reiterates Section 37.001's mitigating factors. Under the statute and Code of Conduct, whenever the mitigating factors outweigh the school's interest in removing the student to DAEP, the school should retain the student in the regular classroom. Our attorneys can help you and your student make the most compelling case possible for the elimination of the DAEP penalty based on the listed mitigating factors and other conditions. The statutory mitigating factors include:
- that your student acted in reasonable self-defense;
- that your student did not intend to commit the alleged wrong;
- that your student had a clean and clear disciplinary record;
- that your student had a known or unknown disability that kept your student from recognizing and avoiding the wrong;
- that your student was in a conservatorship that excused the wrong or
- that your student was homeless, excusing the wrong.
Lewisville ISD Emergency Placement
Emergency placement is often an issue in DAEP cases. Texas Education Code Section 37.019 authorizes Lewisville ISD school officials to remove a student on an emergency basis if the student is so unruly or disruptive as to seriously interfere with teaching or school operations. Emergency removal gives the student and parent no notice in advance and no hearing to contest the removal. The removal may be to home or to a DAEP placement. The Lewisville ISD Student Code of Conduct reiterates Section 37.019's emergency removal authority. Both the statute and Student Code of Conduct limit the emergency removal to no longer than ten days. To continue the removal beyond ten days, Lewisville ISD officials must give your student a hearing at which we can appear to contest the removal with the aim of restoring your student to the regular classroom.
Lewisville ISD DAEP Placement Hearing
Texas Education Code Sections 37.009 and 37.019 meet your student's constitutional due process rights by promising your student the right to a formal hearing to challenge DAEP placement. The Lewisville ISD Student Code of Conduct articulates its own hearing rights. We can invoke these hearing rights to help you and your student present the above defenses and keep your student in the regular classroom.
Lewisville ISD DAEP Appeal
If your student has already lost the formal hearing, then Texas Education Code Section 37.009 guarantees your student an appeal of the adverse decision to place your student in a DAEP school. The Lewisville ISD Student Code of Conduct recognizes your student's statutory appeal rights. If the school principal or another designee made the initial DAEP decision, then the appeal goes first to the Lewisville ISD board. If the board affirms the DAEP decision, then Section 37.009 authorizes an appeal to the Denton County district court. Our attorneys can invoke your student's appeal rights and pursue and perfect a compelling appeal.
Alternative Special Relief
If, instead, your student has already lost both the hearing and all appeals, our attorneys may be able to communicate, advocate, and negotiate with Lewisville ISD oversight officials in a general counsel office or with outside retained counsel for alternative special relief. Our attorneys can present your student's special circumstances to officials who trust our presentation and proposals based on our national reputation and professional relationships.
Premier Lewisville Area Schools DAEP Defense
If your student faces DAEP charges in the Lewisville, Texas area, retain the Lento Law Firm's highly qualified Student Defense Team out of our Dallas office. We are available to defend students throughout the Lewisville area. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now. Learn more details here about Texas DAEP matters.
