Little Elm area schools, on the eastern shores of Lewisville Lake, rank among the better North Dallas area school systems. You know the charms of the Little Elm and Lewisville Lake area. You also know the value your minor student draws from the Little Elm area schools regular classroom. But if your student faces Little Elm area school disciplinary charges, threatening disciplinary alternative education placement (DAEP), also called boot camp or reform school, you could lose everything you hope and expect for your student's elementary or secondary school education. DAEP takes unruly and disruptive students that the Little Elm area's regular schools expel for violations involving drugs, guns, gangs, sex crimes, and other serious 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, for your student's best defense against Little Elm area schools disciplinary charges threatening DAEP. Save your student's Little Elm area traditional classroom education.
Little Elm Area Schools Student Defense
Our Dallas office's premier attorneys know the Texas DAEP laws and school practices. We know what school officials in Little Elm and other systems throughout the Dallas area and across Texas do to shift students whom their regular schools do not want to serve into DAEP, to relieve the regular schools of the burden of instructing them, and to improve school scores. Don't let that happen to your Little Elm area school student. We can defend your minor student in any Little Elm area school at any level, whether in any part of Denton County, including Little Elm, Lakewood Village, Hackberry, The Colony, Oak Point, Frisco, or any other district, city, or town. We know that the historic Little Elm schools went through a period of school consolidation and are once again entering a period of growth, anticipating new elementary schools to accommodate the swelling school population. We can represent your student in any of the following Little Elm area schools:
Little Elm High Schools (Grades 9-12)
Little Elm High School
Little Elm Middle Schools (Grades 6-8)
Jerry R. Walker Middle School
Dr. Lowell H. Strike Middle School
Little Elm Elementary Schools (Grades Preschool-5)
Cesar Chavez Elementary School
Hackberry Elementary School
Lakeview Elementary School
Oak Point Elementary School
Prestwick Elementary School
D.H. Brent Elementary School
Lakewood Village Elementary School
Texas DAEP Law
Texas Education Code Chapter 37, Subchapter A, authorizes Little Elm area schools and other Texas school systems to offer disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEP) for students whose behavior disrupts the regular classroom. Texas Education Code Section 37.008 expressly provides for the removal of unruly, dangerous, or disruptive students to DAEP programs. These are the boot camps or reform schools that, although necessary for some students, you don't generally want your student to attend for all the challenges that they can face, enduring and learning in those challenging programs.
Little Elm Area DAEP Program
Little Elm area schools accordingly staff a disciplinary alternative education program (DAEP) called REACH and a second alternative learning program for at-risk students called GOALS. Little Elm ISD's home page for its alternative learning programs admits that the district staffs the REACH DAEP program for students removed from their home campuses “due to severe and/or repeated violations of the LEISD Student Code of Conduct or reasons defined in Chapter 37 of the Texas Education Code.” A student body of severe and repeat offenders is not generally conducive to peer support and structured learning. Avoid DAEP at all costs. Let us help your student defend and defeat Little Elm area schools DAEP disciplinary charges.
Little Elm Area DAEP Program Challenges
The challenges of Texas DAEP programs are real, not imagined or exaggerated. A study from the University of Texas at Austin's Education Review journal shows that only 44% of first-time DAEP enrollees graduate within the usual four years. That figure drops to only 25% of DAEP enrollees referred for a second or subsequent placement, compared to the 84% graduation rate for regular school students. Expect Little Elm area school disciplinary officials to talk up the district's REACH DAEP program and GOALS program for at-risk students. But don't let them pressure you and your student into a DAEP referral. Keep your student among your student's supportive peers, familiar teachers, and advisors in the regular classroom. Let us help defend and defeat the DAEP charges.
Little Elm Area Code of Conduct
Texas Education Code Sections 37.006, 37.007, and 37.008 state the permissible and mandatory grounds for DAEP referral. The Little Elm ISD Code of Conduct mimics those statutory grounds for DAEP removal. Your student's Little Elm area school disciplinary charges likely cite one or more of the Code of Conduct's grounds for discipline, among the dozens of such grounds. Your student's disciplinary proceeding should also take place under the LEISD Code of Conduct's procedures. Our attorneys can help you and your student interpret, apply, and invoke your student's Code of Conduct to your student's best advantage in defense of DAEP removal.
Little Elm Area Excuses for DAEP Removal
As just indicated, Little Elm ISD's Code of Conduct lists dozens of different General Conduct Violations that could result in DAEP or other, lesser disciplinary sanctions. Those grounds for DAEP removal are so numerous, broad, and vague as to give substantial discretion to Little Elm area school officials to do as they please with students they charge with misconduct. Your student may have a disability and be in need of accommodations, special education services, or additional educational support services. Your student's Little Elm area regular school may not want to provide those accommodations and services. A disciplinary charge and DAEP removal are two ways that school officials manage operations to simplify and streamline the regular classroom, when education laws and best practices would provide accommodations and services instead.
Little Elm Area Grounds for DAEP Removal
Little Elm ISD's Code of Conduct groups its dozens of General Conduct Violations into several broad categories. Those categories include (a) disregard for authority such as disobeying teacher directives or leaving school grounds without permission, (b) mistreatment of others such as using profanity or bullying, (c) property offenses like defacing property and theft, (d) possession of prohibited items like look-alike weapons or pornography, (e) misuse of cell phones and other electronic devices, (f) possessing or abusing drugs, (g) misusing computers or the internet such as unauthorized access to teacher files, and (h) safety offenses like verbal threats and endangering hoaxes. The LEISD Code of Conduct identifies any of the offenses in any of these categories as potentially warranting DAEP. Let us help if your student faces DAEP removal charges.
Little Elm Area Discretionary DAEP
Given that the Texas Education Code authorizes either discretionary or mandatory DAEP, the Little Elm ISD's Code of Conduct similarly defines both categories of either discretionary or mandatory DAEP. Little Elm area schools disciplinary officials may choose whether to impose DAEP or instead only lesser sanctions such as a reprimand or probation, in the case of discretionary DAEP. Little Elm area schools discretionary DAEP grounds include:
- bullying a student into suicide or attempted suicide;
- group bullying inciting violence against students;
- releasing intimate student photos or videos without consent;
- participating in a school fraternity, sorority, secret society, or gang;
- involvement in criminal street gang activity in school;
- committing criminal mischief of any degree;
- committing assault, threatening imminent bodily injury;
- committing assault by offensive or provocative bodily contact.
Little Elm Area Mandatory DAEP
Texas Education Code Sections 37.006 and 37.007 require DAEP placement to address more serious misconduct than the categories just cited above for discretionary DAEP. Mandatory DAEP leaves school officials no choice but to impose DAEP if they find that one of the mandatory DAEP forms of violation occurred. However, we may be able to convince school officials to pursue lesser charges for discretionary DAEP and to forgo any DAEP sanction through our skilled advocacy. The Little Elm ISD Code of Conduct tracks Sections 37.006 and 37.007, listing the following violations warranting mandatory DAEP:
- false fire alarm, bomb threat, or terroristic threat;
- committing a felony crime on school property;
- delivering or possessing a controlled substance on school grounds;
- delivering or possessing THC on school grounds;
- delivering or possessing alcohol on school grounds;
- delivering or possessing e-cigarettes on school grounds;
- public lewdness or indecent exposure on school grounds;
- harassing a school employee in a statutorily prohibited manner;
- retaliating against school employees in a statutorily prohibited manner.
Little Elm Area DAEP Defenses
Little Elm area school officials must generally provide your student with constitutional due process before removing your student to DAEP. Due process requires fair notice of the charges and a fair opportunity for a hearing before an impartial decision maker. A hearing gives our attorneys the chance to present and prevail on your student's available defenses, to avoid DAEP. We may, for instance, be able to show that your student suffered from unlawful bullying and harassment, or from a sudden mental aberration, medication reaction, or physical illness, acting out as a natural and forgivable consequence. We may alternatively be able to show that the complaining witness fabricated the allegations against your student to cover up their own wrong, or was mistaken as to your student's identity, or innocent actions. Your student may alternatively have been acting reasonably, under the instructions of another school official, in a safe harbor against disciplinary enforcement. These are just a few of many potential defenses our attorneys can pursue depending on the circumstances.
Little Elm Area DAEP Mitigating Factors
Texas Education Code Section 37.001 requires Little Elm area school officials to take into account other mitigating factors before imposing a DAEP sanction. The LEISD Code of Conduct reiterates those statutory mitigating factors. They include evidence that your student acted in self-defense, acted without intending a violation, had no prior discipline, had a mental disability making your student unable to appreciate the violation, or was under a conservatorship in foster care or was homeless. We can present any such mitigating evidence to advocate for no sanction and to avoid DAEP.
Little Elm Area DAEP Placement Hearing
Texas Education Code Section 37.0081 requires an administrative hearing whenever disciplinary officials seek DAEP for more than a ten-day period. Texas Education Code Section 37.009 adds hearing requirements. The Little Elm ISD Code of Conduct not only makes the same promise of a hearing but also details hearing procedures, including the right to cross-examine the school's incriminating witnesses. Our attorneys can arrange for the attendance of your witnesses, conduct direct and cross-examination, and otherwise assist you throughout the hearing as the board permits.
Little Elm Area Emergency DAEP Placement
Texas Education Code Section 37.019 authorizes emergency removal before a hearing for up to ten days. If Little Elm area school officials have already removed your student to DAEP on an emergency basis, let us invoke your student's post-removal hearing rights to restore your student to the regular classroom.
Little Elm Area DAEP Appeal
Texas Education Code Section 37.009 allows an aggrieved student to appeal an adverse DAEP decision. The Little Elm ISD's Code of Conduct designates the ISD board as the final appeal body, stating that no further appeals are available. Our attorneys know how to make a convincing appeal for reversal of DAEP placement, if you have already lost your student's hearing, and your student faces DAEP.
Alternative Special Relief
Our attorneys may also be able to seek alternative special relief through a general counsel's office or other oversight official at the Little Elm area school or state level. We have the reputation and relationships to engage oversight officials in frank conversations of the legality and wisdom of school disciplinary actions, in light of broader legal and regulatory duties. We may be able to gain your student reinstatement into the regular classroom even if you have already lost all hearings and appeals. We can also pursue available civil court relief.
Premier Little Elm Area Schools DAEP Defense
If your student faces school disciplinary charges in the Little Elm, Texas area, and your student could suffer disciplinary alternative placement, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team out of our Dallas office for your student's highly qualified defense. Our attorneys help hundreds of students in Texas and nationwide defend and defeat school disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now. Learn more details here about Texas DAEP matters.
