Texas Disciplinary Placement – Pearland

Pearland, Texas area schools, whether in the Pearland Independent School District or another Brazoria County school district, must follow the same Texas state law mandates that other school districts follow, permitting or requiring disciplinary alternative education placement (DAEP) of disruptive students. Read DAEP as boot camp or reform school. Don't let your student's Pearland area school dump your student into DAEP with students found to have committed weapons, drug, alcohol, gang, pornography, and violence violations. 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, for the skilled and experienced defense representation your student needs. Let our highly qualified attorneys protect your student's hopes, dreams, ambitions, and future against Pearland area DAEP charges.

Pearland Area Schools Student Defense

Do not retain an unqualified local personal injury attorney, transactional lawyer, or criminal defense lawyer when your student needs our highly qualified Student Defense Team representation. A Pearland area DAEP administrative proceeding relies on state and federal laws, rules, regulations, and procedures different from state criminal or civil court procedures. Our attorneys have the relevant knowledge, skills, and experience. We can help you in the Pearland Independent School District K-12 schools or in Brazoria County's other school districts, including Alvin Independent School District, Angleton Independent School District, Brazosport Independent School District, Columbia-Brazoria Independent School District, Damon Independent School District, Danbury Independent School District, or Sweeny Independent School District. We can also represent students in all eleven Pearland ISD elementary schools and all Pearland ISD high schools and intermediate schools, including:

Pearland ISD High Schools

• Pearland High School;
• Glenda Dawson High School;
• Robert Turner College & Career High School;
• Pace Center.

Pearland ISD Junior High Schools

• Berry Miller Junior High School;
• Pearland Junior High East;
• Pearland Junior High West;
• Pearland Junior High South.

Pearland ISD Middle Schools

• Alexander Middle School;
• Leon Sablatura Middle School;
• Rogers Middle School;
• Sam Jamison Middle School.

Pearland Area Schools DAEP Programs

Texas Education Code Section 37.008 requires all school districts across the state, including the above Pearland area ISDs, to provide disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEPs) to house dangerous and disruptive students. That's the principal purpose of a DAEP, to allow students who are too dangerous or disruptive to remain in a traditional K-12 program to continue their public school education in a DAEP facility, never mind the safety and security of other students and of teachers and other staff members in that DAEP program. DAEP programs exist in tension, presuming both the unfitness of their students for regular schools and their fitness for a DAEP school that tries to be as similar to a regular school as possible when the dangerous and disruptive student population plainly makes that not possible. In any case, the Pearland ISD maintains the Pace Center's Alternative Learning Academy at 2314 Old Alvin Road in Pearland as its state-mandated DAEP program.

Responding to Pearland ISD DAEP Offers

Beware of enemies bearing gifts, the old adage goes. Too often, when a student has disabilities needing special education services, challenges fitting in at school, challenges outside of school, or other issues requiring more than the usual teacher and administrator time and attention, school officials may propose to the student's parents that they accept a DAEP placement. School officials may speak glowingly of the DAEP program. But remember: a substantial percentage of students in that program have already committed serious wrongs involving things like gangs, guns, drugs, alcohol, pornography, and even sexual assault and violence. That's not a safe, sound, and secure learning environment. Don't give in to DAEP demands and offers. Let us help you defend and defeat disciplinary charges and make the school live up to its educational obligations.

Pearland Area Schools Student Codes of Conduct

School officials may already be telling you that you have no choice in the matter. Indeed, Texas Education Code Section 37.001 authorizes Pearland area schools, like other schools across Texas, to send disruptive students to DAEP placement for violating the district student conduct code. Moreover, Texas Education Code Sections 37.006 and 37.007 mandate DAEP program placement for certain especially serious wrongs. The Pearland ISD has adopted a Student Code of Conduct authorizing both permissive and mandatory DAEP placement. Let us help you defend your student against Pearland area school DAEP charges.

Pearland Area Schools Removal Grounds

Discipline resulting in DAEP placement usually begins with a short-term school suspension. The Pearland ISD Student Code of Conduct includes a very long list of General Conduct Violations that may result in your student's school suspension, followed by DAEP placement. The General Conduct violations fall into the categories of Disregarding Authority, Mistreating Others, Property Offenses, Possession of Prohibited Items, Illegal Drugs, Technology Misuse, and Safety Transgressions. The details of these provisions include the following offenses:

• safety violations such as horseplay, roughhousing, or other playful behavior;
• fighting, slugging, scuffling, or similar violence, whether causing injury or not;
• forcing another to act against their will by duress, coercion, or blackmail;
• hazing, harassing, intimidating, inciting, bullying, or cyberbullying another student;
• sexual contact with others, whether consensual or not; recording or sharing intimate visual images without consent, or obscenity, vulgarity, or profanity;
• possession of tobacco, drugs or paraphernalia, weapons, ammunition, or explosives in the school;
• damaging, destroying, vandalizing, or stealing property belonging to the school or others;
• arson, false fire alarms, or interfering with fire alarms, extinguishers, or smoke detectors;
• misusing electronic devices, accessing unauthorized sites or files, or damage or destruction of school technology;
• violation of the school dress code or failing to maintain appropriate grooming;
• disobedience, disrespect, or insubordination toward school personnel;
• using false identification or, failing to provide requested identification, or
• academic dishonesty, cheating, or plagiarism.

Pearland Area Schools Discretionary DAEP

Texas Education Code Section 37.001 gives Texas K-12 school officials authority for DAEP placement. Section 37.001 does not itself require DAEP placement in specific cases but permits DAEP placement within the judgment of school officials, as the district's student code of conduct provides. The Pearland ISD Student Code of Conduct expressly authorizes DAEP placement for any of its above General Conduct Violations. Violating virtually any school rule could result in DAEP placement. We can help you defend any of those incredibly broad bases for DAEP charges. The Pearland ISD Student Code of Conduct further recognizes the following statutory grounds for permissive or discretionary DAEP placement:

• bullying encouraging suicide or attempted suicide;
• inciting violence through group bullying;
• releasing intimate visual material without the student's consent;
• involvement in a fraternity, sorority, secret society, or gang;
• involvement in criminal street gang activity;
• misdemeanor criminal mischief
• assault with threat of imminent bodily injury; and
• assault by offensive or provocative physical contact.

Pearland Area Schools Mandatory DAEP

While the above cases deal with permissive DAEP placement, Texas law provides for mandatory DAEP placement in other cases. Texas Education Code Sections 37.006 and 37.007 each require DAEP placement for certain more serious forms of misconduct. The Pearland ISD Student Code of Conduct reiterates the mandatory DAEP statutes. Even though the statutes and conduct codes call them mandatory DAEP charges, our attorneys can still help your student defend the charges. Charges are only allegations, not yet findings. Sections 37.006 and 37.007, adopted by the Pearland ISD Student Code of Conduct, include these mandatory DAEP grounds:

• terror threats, bomb threats, and false fire alarms;
• assaulting and injuring another intentionally or recklessly;
• committing felony crimes on campus;
• possessing illegal drugs, alcohol, or firearms on campus;
• drug, alcohol, or marijuana impairment on campus;
• lewdness or indecent exposure on campus;
• criminally assault or criminal harassment on campus;
• aggravated robbery on campus;
• criminal retaliation against teachers and administrators;
• sexual assault of another student on campus, or
• continuous sexual abuse of a child or disabled person.

Pearland Area Schools DAEP Defenses

If your student faces Pearland area school disciplinary charges threatening DAEP placement, keep in mind that charges are only allegations, not findings. Charges do not mean that your student must suffer DAEP placement or another school sanction. Our attorneys may be able to raise valid or even compelling defenses to the allegations. We may be able to show that no misconduct occurred or that someone else committed the misconduct, not your student. We may be able to show that adverse witnesses have no foundation for their speculative testimony, that they have poor memory, or that they misidentified you for another student. Adverse witnesses may also have conflicts of interest, bias, and even retaliatory motives. Alternatively, we may be able to show that you made a reasonable mistake as to the circumstances and that you promptly rectified your mistake when you discovered it. These are just a few of the defenses we may succeed in raising to keep your student in the regular classroom.

Pearland Area Schools DAEP Mitigating Factors

Even if your student engaged in the misconduct that Pearland area school officials allege, we may be able to make a good case for mitigating your student's misconduct to avoid DAEP placement. Your student may have had an undiagnosed disability or other mental condition that triggered the conduct. The school may have failed to accommodate your student's disability, as the federally required manifestation determination review would show. The school may alternatively have failed to stop bullying that triggered your student's reaction. We may also be able to show that your student was suffering from an illness or other extraordinary stress since removed so that no repeat of the misconduct is likely. Texas Education Code Section 37.001 requires Pearland area school officials to consider the following additional mitigating factors in any case involving DAEP placement, as the Pearland ISD Student Code of Conduct itself recognizes:

• self-defense justified the alleged misconduct;
• the wrongful intent the charges require was absent;
• your student had no school disciplinary record before this matter;
• your student's disability kept your student from seeing the wrong or
• your student's homelessness or foster care excuses the conduct.

Pearland Area Schools Emergency Placement

Your student's DAEP matter may also involve an initial emergency removal and DAEP placement. Texas Education Code Section 37.019 authorizes school officials across the state to remove a disruptive student without notice on an emergency basis. The removal may be to home or to a DAEP program. The Pearland ISD Student Code of Conduct reiterates the statute's emergency placement authority. School officials must, though, give your student a hearing if the removal or DAEP placement is to last more than ten days.

Pearland Area Schools DAEP Placement Hearing

Texas Education Code Sections 37.009 and 37.019 promise the right to a formal hearing to dispute a DAEP placement. Our attorneys know how to strategically invoke your student's hearing right to the best effect, presenting defense evidence while cross-examining adverse witnesses.

Pearland Area Schools DAEP Appeal

Our attorneys can even help if your student has already lost the statutory hearing. Texas Education Code Section 37.009 grants an appeal of a DAEP placement, first to the Pearland ISD board and then, if necessary, to the Brazoria County district court for de novo review, meaning a full review. Let us help you and your student pursue and perfect your student's appeal, seeking reinstatement into the regular classroom.

Alternative Special Relief

Our attorneys also have connections with and the confidence of Pearland area school oversight officials, including general counsel offices and outside retained counsel. We may be able to obtain alternative special relief, even if your student has already lost all appeals.

Premier Pearland Area DAEP Defense

If your student faces DAEP charges in the Pearland, Texas area, retain the Lento Law Firm's highly qualified Student Defense Team out of our Houston office. We represent clients throughout Brazoria County and the surrounding area. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now. Learn more details here about Texas DAEP matters.