The Schertz area schools, in Schertz but also serving Cibolo and portions of University City, have strong college prep, administration, activities, and diversity measures, among their other commendable attributes. Yet Schertz has student behavioral issues similar to those of other Texas school districts. And the Schertz deals with those behavioral issues in the manner that many other Texas school districts handle them, through a disciplinary alternative education placement (DAEP) boot camp or reform school. Schertz's DAEP school serves dangerous and disruptive students expelled from the regular Schertz schools for weapons, drugs, gangs, and similar offenses. But Schertz school officials sometimes shunt sound but struggling students off to DAEP, too. Don't let that happen to your Schertz area school student. Call 888.535.3686 or use this contact form now to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team attorneys from the firm's Austin office to save your student from DAEP banishment.
Schertz Area Schools Student Defense
Value your student's regular Schertz area classroom for its structured instruction, teacher expectations, and student peer support. DAEP programs generally lack those important instructional necessities, resulting in their poor performance, as summarized below. Our attorneys can help keep your student in the regular Schertz classroom by defending DAEP disciplinary charges in any of the following Schertz schools:
Schertz Area High Schools (Grades 9-12)
Allison Steele Enhanced Learning Center in Schertz
Byron P. Steele II High School in Cibolo
Samuel Clemens High School in Schertz
Schertz Area Junior High Schools (Grades 7-8)
J. Frank Dobie Junior High in Cibolo
Ray D. Corbett Junior High in Schertz
Schertz Area Intermediate Schools (Grades 5-6)
Barbara Jordan Intermediate in Cibolo
Laura Ingalls Wilder Intermediate in Schertz
Elaine S. Schlather Intermediate in Cibolo
Elementary schools (Kindergarten - Grade 4)
Cibolo Valley Elementary in Cibolo
Green Valley Elementary in Schertz
Maxine & Lutrell Watts Elementary in Cibolo
Norma J. Paschal Elementary in Schertz
O.G. Wiederstein Elementary in Cibolo
Schertz Elementary in Schertz
John A. Sippel Elementary in Schertz
Texas DAEP Law
Texas Education Code Chapter 37, Subchapter A, authorizes DAEP programs to address behavioral problems within Texas primary and secondary schools. Under Texas Education Code Section 37.008, school officials may remove students to DAEP only when they are unruly, dangerous, or disruptive. DAEP programs are not for school convenience, to avoid providing instructional support services, or to improve the regular school's statistics and standing with parents. DAEP programs are for deeply troubled students who have committed gun, drug, gang, or similar offenses, with which the regular district schools cannot safely deal. If your student's Schertz area school is pursuing your student's DAEP removal for the wrong reasons, let us help you fight to keep your student in the regular Schertz classroom.
Schertz Area ISD DAEP Program
The Schertz area school system maintains the SCUC ISD Discipline Alternative Education Program facility at 301 Main Street in Schertz. The Schertz DAEP facility is adjacent to the district's Allison L. Steele Enhanced Learning Center, located just around the corner at 204 Wright Avenue in Schertz. The DAEP facility serves the students that its other schools have expelled for serious behavioral issues, while the district's Enhanced Learning Center serves advanced and non-traditional students without behavioral issues and discipline history. The Schertz DAEP facility maintains a strict dress code requiring denim pants and white shirts, and prohibiting logos and other features. Schertz area school officials will doubtless promote their DAEP facility to you and your student in the hope that you'll consent to a DAEP referral. Doing so is not to your student's academic advantage. Instead, let us help you defend and defeat your student's disciplinary charges.
Texas DAEP Program Statistics
Texas DAEP programs generally reflect poor student academic performance. The University of Texas at Austin Education Review found that while 84% of Texas students graduate from high school on time, less than half (44%) of first-time DAEP students, and only one in four second-time DAEP students, graduate on time. SCUC ISD officials may claim that their DAEP facility has a dedicated staff and positive culture, but no DAEP program can replicate the structure, expectations, and peer support of a regular classroom program. Let us help keep your student in the Schertz area schools regular classroom.
Schertz Area Schools Student Code of Conduct
Texas Education Code Sections 37.006, 37.007, and 37.008 state authorized grounds for DAEP removal. The Schertz area schools' Student Code of Conduct likewise authorizes DAEP removal on the stated statutory grounds. But the Schertz area Student Code of Conduct further authorizes DAEP for any General Conduct Violation among dozens of such General Conduct Violations. The Schertz area Student Code of Conduct further lists more than two dozen additional specific DAEP grounds that the statutes do not include. Plainly, Schertz school officials favor heavier use of DAEP than the state or other districts may prefer. Beware of DAEP removal in Schertz area schools. Let us help your student defend disciplinary charges.
Schertz Area DAEP Removal Excuses
While the Texas statutes authorizing DAEP removal limit authorization to dangerous, unruly, and disruptive students, the Schertz area's Student Code of Conduct clearly does not do so. Schertz school officials may pursue DAEP removal on minor grounds, indeed on any ground warranting any lesser form of discipline. You may already be finding that your student's Schertz area school officials are touting the district's DAEP facility and staff, while encouraging, inviting, or even pressuring you to consent to your student's DAEP referral. If you consent, you lose all the protections of the Texas Education Code and the Schertz area Student Code of Conduct against arbitrary or capricious referral. School officials can then use your student's DAEP referral to avoid accommodating your student's disability, providing special education services or instructional support to your student, or protecting your student against bullying, intimidation, or harassment, causing your student to struggle. They can save on school costs and the inconvenience of their teachers while potentially raising their school's academic profile. These are all excuses, not sound reasons, for DAEP referral. Let us help you keep that from happening to your student.
Schertz Area Grounds for DAEP Removal
Schertz area's Student Code of Conduct authorizes DAEP removal on seemingly countless minor grounds, in addition to the much more-serious statutory grounds. The Schertz Student Code of Conduct organizes those grounds into discretionary DAEP removal and mandatory DAEP removal, addressed by our attorneys as follows.
Schertz Code of Conduct Discretionary DAEP Removal
Discretionary removal means that Schertz area school officials retain the choice of imposing DAEP or a lesser sanction. That discretion gives us the opportunity to advocate on your student's behalf either for no sanctions, and instead only remedial measures like counseling or mentoring, or if the school insists on some sanction, then for a minor sanction like reprimand or probation that keeps your student in the regular classroom. Here are a few of the dozens of grounds the Schertz area's Student Code of Conduct lists for discretionary DAEP removal, ending with the statutory grounds listed in Texas Education Code Section 37.006: possessing fireworks, smoke bombs, or stink bombs; possessing drug paraphernalia; possessing a razor or knife without location restriction; repeated physically aggressive behavior; disrupting an athletic event or dramatic performance; unauthorized school entry; or threatening safety.
Statutory Discretionary DAEP Removal Grounds
Group bullying inciting violence; individual bullying causing suicide or suicide attempts; releasing non-consensual intimate student photos or videos; participating in a fraternity, sorority, secret society, or gang; engaging in criminal mischief or criminal street gang activity; committing assault with offensive or provocative contact; committing assault threatening imminent bodily injury; or committing a felony crime off school grounds.
Schertz Area Mandatory DAEP Removal
Texas Education Code Sections 37.006 and 37.007 provide for mandatory DAEP for more-serious misbehaviors. While mandatory DAEP means Schertz area school officials have no choice in the matter, they must still first find that your student committed the alleged mandatory DAEP wrong before imposing that mandatory DAEP penalty. We can thus advocate for whatever defense your student has against disciplinary allegations to keep your student in the regular classroom. We can also urge Schertz area school officials to reduce the disciplinary charge to a discretionary DAEP status, so that we can argue for alternative remedial measures or a sanction less than DAEP removal. The Schertz area Student Code of Conduct authorizes mandatory DAEP on the following grounds, consistent with the statutory grounds for mandatory DAEP:
- issuing a bomb threat, terroristic threat, or false fire alarm;
- committing a felony crime or statutory assault at school;
- possessing a controlled substance or drug on school grounds;
- possessing marijuana, THC, or e-cigarettes on school grounds;
- committing statutory lewdness or indecent exposure at school;
- being under the influence of aerosol inhalants at school;
- committing statutory harassment or retaliation against a school employee.
Schertz Area DAEP Defenses
Schertz area school disciplinary charges threatening DAEP removal are not the same as a finding of misconduct or a decision to send your student to DAEP. Don't mistake a charge for a finding or referral. A charge only alleges a wrong without establishing that the wrong occurred or imposing any penalty. We may be able to show that your student only followed a school staff member's instructions, that your student made a reasonable mistake in the circumstances, that your student's accuser is retaliating against or trying to coerce or intimidate your student with false charges, or that the accuser was simply mistaken as to your student's identity or innocent conduct. These defenses are just a few of the ones our attorneys may discover and pursue to keep your student in the regular Schertz area classroom.
Schertz Area DAEP Mitigating Factors
Texas Education Code Section 37.001 recognizes specific mitigating factors that Schertz area school officials must consider in your student's favor if those factors are present. Mitigating factors admit the wrong but explain it away with reasonable justification. We can use mitigating factors to prevent DAEP or even eliminate any other, lesser sanction. The Schertz area Student Code of Conduct adopts the statutory mitigating factors, which include that the accused student was in foster care or homeless, had a disability preventing the student from recognizing the wrong, acted in self-defense, reasonably believing in its need, or had a clean disciplinary record.
Schertz Area DAEP Placement Hearing
Texas Education Code Section 37.0081 requires an administrative hearing that meets Texas Education Code Section 37.009's hearing requirements for DAEP removals longer than ten days. The Schertz area Student Code of Conduct repeats the statutory assurance of a hearing to challenge DAEP removal. Let our attorneys invoke your student's hearing rights to present exonerating evidence and challenge the school's removal claim.
Schertz Area Emergency DAEP Placement
Texas Education Code Section 37.019 authorizes emergency DAEP removal without requiring a hearing, provided that the school shows that removal was necessary for safety or operations. Just as our attorneys can invoke your student's pre-removal hearing rights, we can also invoke post-removal hearing rights to return your student to the regular classroom.
Schertz Area DAEP Appeals
Texas Education Code Section 37.009 authorizes appeals of DAEP removal decisions. As in the case of the above hearing rights, the Schertz area Student Code of Conduct also authorizes an appeal, first to the principal and then to the district board. We can invoke your student's appeals of a DAEP removal if you have already lost your student's removal hearing.
Alternative Special Relief
Our attorneys have the national reputation and statewide relationships to reach and communicate with oversight officials, such as a general counsel or outside retained counsel, for regular classroom reinstatement as a form of alternative special relief, even if you have lost your student's hearing and appeals. Let us exhaust all avenues for relief until we achieve your student's best possible outcome.
Premier Schertz Area Schools DAEP Defense
If your student faces DAEP removal from the Schertz, Texas area schools, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team out of our Austin office for your student's best possible outcome. We help students across Texas and nationwide defend school disciplinary charges to preserve, protect, and restore their educational program. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now. Learn more details here about Texas DAEP matters.
