New Braunfels, Texas area schools, in both the New Braunfels and Comal Independent School Districts, send students to disciplinary alternative education placement (DAEP) just like other Texas school districts under the state's Education Code. Whatever educators may call it, removal from the regular school and classroom to DAEP means boot camp or reform school, along with all the attendant disruption, embarrassment, and loss of student and teacher relationships in the regular school. Don't let your student suffer DAEP and its potential effects on your student's development and future. Call 888.535.3686 or use this contact form to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team out of our Austin office. Get the skilled and experienced help you need for effective defense of New Braunfels area DAEP charges.
New Braunfels Area Schools Student Defense
Do not retain unqualified local criminal defense counsel or civil litigation attorneys for your student's critical DAEP defense matter. Our highly qualified Student Defense Team lawyers are available in all New Braunfels and Comal Independent School District schools at any K-12 level, including the following middle schools and high schools:
New Braunfels ISD Schools
- New Braunfels High School;
- Long Creek High School;
- School of Choice;
- New Braunfels Middle School;
- Oak Run Middle School and
- all New Braunfels ISD elementary schools.
Comal ISD Schools
- Canyon High School;
- Canyon Lake High School;
- Smithson Valley High School;
- Davenport High School;
- Pieper High School;
- Memorial Early College High School;
- Hill Country College Preparatory High School;
- Bulverde Middle School;
- Canyon Middle School;
- Church Middle School;
- Danville Middle School;
- Mountain Valley Middle School;
- Pieper Ranch Middle School;
- Smithson Valley Middle School;
- Spring Branch Middle School and
- all Comal ISD elementary schools.
New Braunfels Area Schools DAEP Program
Texas Education Code Section 37.008 requires the New Braunfels and Comal Independent School Districts to refer unsafe, unruly, and disruptive students to a disciplinary alternative education program for discipline of serious wrongs. Both the New Braunfels and Comal ISDs comply with Section 37.008 by staffing their own DAEP programs at sites outside of the district's regular schools. The Comal ISD calls its DAEP program the Comal Discipline Center, having its own strict student dress code and rules. The New Braunfels ISD calls its DAEP program simply the Disciplinary Alternative Education Program. School disciplinary officials often try to convince parents to consent to DAEP placement, arguing that DAEP programs have special education services and other resources for special needs students. However, your student has the same right to traditional classroom instruction in a regular school setting, even if that regular placement requires special services and accommodations. DAEP programs house students who have committed serious weapons, drugs, alcohol, gangs, and other violent, corrupting, and endangering wrongs. Don't let school officials shunt your student off to a DAEP program simply because they don't want to do what the law requires. Get our help to keep your student in the regular classroom.
New Braunfels Schools Student Codes of Conduct
Your student's New Braunfels area school must enforce a student code of conduct sending disruptive students for DAEP placement. Texas Education Code Section 37.001 requires school districts to adopt student conduct codes that include detailed provisions on DAEP placement. Texas Education Code Sections 37.006 and 37.007 require those student conduct codes to direct DAEP program placements for certain student wrongs. The New Braunfels ISD has adopted a Student Code of Conduct providing for DAEP placement. The Comal ISD has also adopted a Student Code of Conduct providing for DAEP placement. Beware Student Code of Conduct DAEP charges. Let us help you and your student defend those charges.
New Braunfels Area Schools Removal Grounds
Student DAEP matters in the New Braunfels area schools usually first involve the student's removal from the school for violating a general student code of conduct provision. The New Braunfels ISD Student Code of Conduct calls those violations “General Types of Prohibited Misconduct,” while the Comal ISD Student Code of Conduct calls those violations “General Conduct Violations.” Both codes provide that any general violation warrants school removal. The next step after school removal may be a proposal or proceeding for DAEP placement. Our attorneys can help you and your student effectively defend both the underlying disciplinary charge and the school's effort to send your student for DAEP placement. Both the New Braunfels and Comal ISD Student Codes of Conduct authorize these grounds for school removal:
- playful misbehavior threatening safety, including horseplay and roughhousing;
- violent behavior, whether it causes an injury or not, including fighting, striking, shoving, and scuffling;
- threatening violent injury of another;
- any form of coercion or blackmail attempting to force another to act against their will;
- disrupting, harassing, or inciting, including bullying, cyberbullying, slurs, other offensive remarks, and hazing;
- disclosing intimate visual material, invasive visual surveillance and recording, and obscenity, vulgarity, or profanity;
- inappropriate physical or sexual contact with others, whether or not consensual;
- drugs, drug paraphernalia, weapons, pornography, tobacco products, or other prohibited items in school;
- defacing, damaging, or destroying school property or property belonging to another;
- false fire alarms, damaging fire alarms, extinguishers, or smoke detectors, starting fires, and other unsafe conduct;
- unauthorized access to electronic devices, sites, or files, or misuse of or damage to school technology;
- dress code violations and failure to maintain appropriate grooming;
- disobedience or insubordination toward a principal, teacher, or other staff member;
- failure to supply requested student identification and
- any form of academic dishonesty, including misrepresenting, cheating, plagiarism, falsifying, or altering or destroying school records.
New Braunfels Area Schools Discretionary DAEP
Texas Education Code Section 37.001 and other Texas education statutes give your student's school officials the choice of whether to impose DAEP placement in many cases. Indeed, in most cases other than those involving the most serious offenses, whether your student will face a DAEP proceeding is up to the school. The statutes call it permissive DAEP placement. Any violation of the New Braunfels ISD Student Code of Conduct General Types of Prohibited Misconduct or Comal ISD Student Code of Conduct General Conduct Violations could result in DAEP placement proceedings. Don't let your student's school officials rush your student off to DAEP for any minor conduct violation just to relieve the school of an obligation for special services, accommodation, or instruction or for discriminatory or other unlawful or unethical reasons. Let us help you and your student defend and defeat DAEP charges.
New Braunfels Area Schools Mandatory DAEP
While in most student discipline cases, DAEP placement is permissive, meaning up to the school's disciplinary officials, Texas Education Code Sections 37.006 and 37.007 require DAEP placement when students commit specified serious wrongs. Do not assume that just because school officials have charged your student with a mandatory DAEP wrong, your student will suffer a DAEP placement. We may still be able to successfully defend the charge, as further explained below. Both the New Braunfels ISD Student Code of Conduct and Comal ISD Student Code of Conduct follow the statutes to provide for mandatory DAEP placement for the following wrongs:
- students setting off false fire alarms;
- students making false bomb threats;
- students injuring others on purpose or recklessly;
- students possessing drugs, alcohol, or firearms in school;
- student drug or alcohol use or impairment in school;
- students committing indecent exposure or lewdness in school;
- students assaulting or harassing volunteers or teachers;
- students who commit felony crimes in school;
- students who sexually assault another student;
- students who continuously sexually abuse a child or
- students who continually sexually abuse a disabled person.
New Braunfels Area Schools DAEP Defenses
Your student may have valid, strong, or even compelling defenses to New Braunfels area school DAEP disciplinary charges. Charges do not mean that your student has necessarily committed the alleged wrong. School officials may be relying on witnesses who did not observe what they speculate, witnesses who misidentified your student, or even witnesses who are retaliating against your student or scapegoating your student for their own wrong. Even if your student committed the alleged misconduct, our attorneys may alternatively be able to make a strong case mitigating sanctions and avoiding a DAEP placement. Your student may have undiagnosed conditions or unaccommodated disabilities or may have been reacting to bullying or discrimination that the school should have prevented. Texas Education Code Section 37.001 further expressly authorizes the following statutory mitigating factors as defenses to DAEP placement, each of which the New Braunfels and Comal ISD Student Codes of Conduct recognize:
- the accused student committed the misconduct in self-defense;
- the accused student lacked the requisite guilty or bad intent;
- the accused student had no prior school history of wrongdoing;
- the accused student had a disability contributing to the wrong or
- the accused student was homeless or in foster care placement.
New Braunfels Area Schools Emergency Placement
You may have learned about your student's DAEP proceeding only after school officials already removed your student in a short-term suspension. Texas Education Code Section 37.019 authorizes emergency removal of a student who seriously interferes with teaching, school operation, or a school event. The New Braunfels and Comal ISD Student Codes of Conduct each follow Section 37.019 to authorize emergency removal and, in the New Braunfels ISD's case, even an emergency DAEP placement. Retain us immediately if you learn of your student's emergency DAEP placement. Section 37.019 and the New Braunfels and Comal ISD Student Codes of Conduct require a DAEP placement within ten days of emergency removal. We can invoke that hearing right and advocate at the hearing for your student's reinstatement.
New Braunfels Area Schools DAEP Placement Hearing
Texas Education Code Sections 37.009 and 37.019 recognize your student's constitutional due process right to a formal hearing. School officials must not send your student to a long-term or permanent DAEP placement without first giving us the opportunity to present your student's defense to the DAEP charges. We can invoke your student's hearing right to cross-examine adverse witnesses and present your student's exonerating and mitigating evidence before the district board or an impartial decision-maker whom the board appoints. Both the New Braunfels and Comal ISD Student Codes of Conduct recognize your student's hearing rights.
New Braunfels Area Schools DAEP Appeal
Retain us to take your student's DAEP appeals if your student has already lost the DAEP hearing. Texas Education Code Section 37.009 requires New Braunfels area schools to permit the accused student to appeal a DAEP placement to the district board. If the board affirms the DAEP placement, then Section 37.009 grants your student an appeal to the Comal County district court. Both the New Braunfels and Comal ISD Student Codes of Conduct recognize board appeal rights. Although the two Student Codes of Conduct do not recognize the statutory right to a district court review, you still have that right. Let our highly qualified attorneys take your statutory appeals and seek district court review if necessary and appropriate.
Alternative Special Relief
If you and your student have exhausted all appeals, our attorneys may have another route for your student's alternative special relief and reinstatement to the regular classroom. The New Braunfels and Comal ISDs have general counsel offices, outside retained counsel, or other oversight officials. Those officials ensure that the districts treat students fairly as to all of their federal, state, and constitutional rights to avoid litigation, liability, regulatory risks, and reputational harm. Our attorneys have the good reputation and relationships as premier student discipline defense attorneys, to communicate, advocate, and negotiate with oversight officials for special relief. Let us help, even if you have exhausted all other avenues.
Premier New Braunfels Area DAEP Defense Attorneys
If your student faces DAEP charges in the New Braunfels, Texas, area, retain the Lento Law Firm's highly qualified Student Defense Team out of our Austin office. We represent clients throughout Comal County. Do not retain unqualified local attorneys who lack our substantial skill, experience, reputation, and relationships. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now. Learn more details here about Texas DAEP matters.
