Students with disabilities have a right to special education services under federal and Texas laws. For students with disabilities who have repeated disciplinary issues, their support may expand to include a behavior intervention plan (BIP).
The purpose of a BIP is to help a student address problem behaviors and replace those behaviors with positive alternatives. The goal is to decrease misconduct and discipline incidents by addressing the root of a student’s behavioral issues.
Schools also have the right to discipline and punish students for misconduct. In Texas, one avenue schools can use to discipline a student is a disciplinary alternative education program (DAEP). DAEP takes students out of their regular educational routine and puts them in an alternative program for a certain period of time.
Whether a student with disabilities can be placed in a DAEP depends on several factors. These include the circumstances of the misconduct and the role a student’s disability played in their misconduct.
Throughout this process, one of the questions is when and how a student may receive a behavior intervention plan (BIP). BIPs are designed to help students with disabilities address their behavioral issues and avoid future disciplinary issues.
BIPs can be one of the best ways to help students with disabilities decrease misconduct incidents in school. By understanding when and how schools must provide a BIP, as well as the related Functional Behavior Assessment FBA), parents and guardians can better advocate for their students and ensure they have access to the best education possible.
That your child or teen has a disability doesn’t reduce their need for an education or their ability to benefit from that education. If and when they have repeated disciplinary incidents at school, punishments don’t solve the underlying issues.
The Education Law Team at the LLF National Law Firm advocates for students throughout Texas. Whether your student is facing a DAEP placement or issues related to disabilities and special education, we can help. You and your family have options, up to and including suing the school. Call us at 888-535-3686 or fill out an online form.
What is a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program?
Disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEPs) remove students from their normal classroom and school schedule for a set period of time due to misconduct. In Texas, all K-12 school districts must have a DAEP, either specific to their district or in partnership with other districts. All DAEPS:
- Cannot occur in a student’s regular classroom and must be physically located elsewhere, including in a different location or building
- Must separate students placed in DAEP from the general school community
- Most provide an education that focuses on English, math, science, history, and self-discipline
- Should support students’ educational and behavioral needs
- Must offer supervision and counseling services to students
If a student has an eligible disability, schools must continue to provide special education services during a student’s DAEP placement. Schools do not, however, have to offer the exact same services in DAEP as a student receives in their regular classroom placement.
Types of DAEP Placements
DAEP placements are either mandatory or discretionary. With mandatory placements, a student must be placed in a DAEP. For discretionary placements, a student may be placed in a DAEP.
A third type is an emergency DAEP placement. When a student is a threat to the school community or unruly, disruptive, or abusive to a level that interferes with normal classroom or school activities, schools may use the emergency placement avenue. The school will still have to follow normal DAEP procedure within ten days of the start of the emergency placement.
What is a Functional Behavior Assessment?
Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA) are evaluations of a student who has had misconduct or behavioral issues in school. The goal is to collect information to better understand a student’s behavior.
The Texas Department of Education describes an FBA as:
- Describing a student’s interfering or problem behavior
- Identifying events that affect a student’s behavior
- Developing a hypothesis for the student’s behavior
- Testing the hypothesis
During an FBA, schools should assemble a wide array of data. This can include school records, disciplinary history, and teacher interviews. Information on a student’s social life and home life can also be relevant. The goal is to collect as much relevant information as possible to enable school staff to understand the âwhy’ of a student’s behavior.
What is a Behavior Intervention Plan?
After completing the FBA, the next step is a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP). The purpose of the goal is to take the information gained from the FBA to create a plan to support reinforcing positive behaviors.
BIPS may sound similar to IEPs, but they have key differences. An IEP focuses on the support a student with disabilities requires as part of their education. A BIP, in comparison, is about providing support to help students shift away from negative behavior and toward positive behavior.
The Texas Department of Education suggests that the following should be included on a BIP:
- Strategies intended to increase appropriate replacement behaviors
- Replacement behavior should serve the same function as a student’s interfering or problem behavior
- Prevention strategies, such as alterations to the classroom or other environments, to reduce or eliminate problem behaviors
- Support for students to help reinforce and promote appropriate behaviors
- Strategies to help students understand consequences
- This should be for addressing both instances of challenging or problem behavior, as well as when a student uses replacement behavior
The key with any BIP is that it should be tailored to the individual student. Even if two students have similar histories of misconduct, they may require different support and interventions. That’s why a strong FBA is key to a BIP: Without understanding the why of a student’s behavior, it’s difficult to find a solution.
What is a Manifestation Determination?
When a student with disabilities is removed from their normal placement for more than ten days during the same school year, schools must conduct a manifestation determination review. During this meeting, school staff and the student’s parents or guardians discuss whether the student’s misconduct was a manifestation of their disability.
These meetings focus on two questions:
- Was the conduct in question caused by or did it have a direct and substantial relationship to the student’s disability?
- Was the conduct in question the direct result of a school’s failure to implement a student’s IEP or 504 Plan?
If the answer to both of these questions is no, schools can discipline a student the same as they would any other student in similar circumstances.
For DAEP placements, if a student’s misconduct relates to their disability, they will stay in their current education placement and continue their schedule as normal.
If a student’s misconduct wasn’t related to their disability, they may be placed in DAEP if a student in a similar situation would also be placed in a DAEP and for a similar length of time. They will still receive special education support during their DAEP placement, but Texas allows schools to provide services that differ from the services and support a student receives during their normal placement. As long as an accommodation or modification is effective, it’s considered sufficient under both Texas and federal laws.
Manifestation Determinations, DAEPs, and Special Circumstances
In certain serious incidents of misconduct, schools don’t have to follow the manifestation determination guidelines. In Texas, when these special circumstances occur, a school can remove a student for up to 45 days without conducting a manifestation review. Texas defines the following as special circumstances for DAEP placements:
- When a student carries or possesses a weapon to school, on school grounds, or at a school event
- When a student knowingly possesses, uses, sells, or solicits any controlled substances or illegal drugs while at school, on school grounds, or at a school activity
- When a student causes another person to serious bodily injury while at school, on school grounds, or at a school event
In these special circumstances, a student’s disability doesn’t factor into their initial DAEP placement. While an emergency placement doesn’t end a school’s obligation to conduct a manifestation determination meeting or provide a student with an FBA or BIP, these requirements don’t prevent the school from making the initial emergency placement.
DAEPs and BIPs
Both federal and Texas laws require that students with disabilities receive an FBA and BIP following repeated instances of misconduct. This is the case regardless of the outcome of a DAEP placement or a manifestation determination meeting.
For any type of DAEP placement, even an emergency placement, schools will have to conduct a manifestation determination meeting. Following this meeting, regardless of whether misconduct was or was not a manifestation of a student’s disability, the district should begin the process of conducting an FBA and then creating a BIP.
Schools must first get parental consent for an FBA. A student will undergo an FBA when they’ve either never had an FBA or if their last FBA is over a year old.
When a student already has a BIP, school staff should meet with the student’s parents or guardians to review the BIP and revise it as needed. It can sometimes take time to find the right support interventions for students. In addition, parents and guardians need to confirm that the school has been implementing the BIP.
Whether a BIP can prevent a student from a DAEP placement depends on the details of the student’s misconduct.
BIPs and Emergency DAEP Placements
For the initial emergency placement, a BIP is unlikely to change that placement. Emergency placements occur because of a student possessing, for example, a gun or drugs, on school grounds. While schools do still have to conduct a manifestation determination review, Texas gives schools flexibility in situations where they believe a student poses a threat to school safety.
BIPs and DAEP Placements
For students with disabilities, the key to avoiding a DAEP placement is the manifestation determination review. If a disciplinary incident is found to be the result of a student’s disability, the student must be returned to their normal school placement.
Texas, however, includes an important addition to any manifestation determination review. During a manifestation review, schools should consider not only the student’s IEP or 504 plan, but also any:
- Functional behavioral assessments (FBA)
- Positive behavioral interventions, strategies, and supports
- Behavioral intervention plans (BIP)
Put another way, for students who already have a BIP, part of the manifestation determination review should focus on whether a school has been implementing the student’s BIP. If a school hasn’t been implementing a student’s BIP, parents and guardians should push for the school to treat that failure as the same as a failure to implement a student’s IEP. This means a student’s misconduct is a manifestation of their disability, and the student shouldn’t receive a DAEP placement.
Texas’s laws and guidance on this topic, and how a BIP factors into a DAEP placement, leave room for interpretation. This is why it’s important to hire the Education Law Team at the LLF National Law Firm. We can advocate for you and build a case to help keep your child out of a DAEP placement and get the support they need to address behavioral issues.
Type of DAEP Placements and BIPs
The second component for BIPs is whether a student is facing a mandatory or discretionary DAEP placement. Schools have more leeway with discretionary placements.
If a student’s actions were found not to be a manifestation of their disability, the type of placement becomes important. For mandatory placements, schools must follow Texas law or school district policy. A student can still have a BIP and receive support, but they will likely have a DAEP placement.
For discretionary placements, however, parents and guardians can push for their student to remain in their current placement and continue with their regular school day. The focus can turn to the FBA and then the BIP, with the goal of addressing the student’s misconduct issues and preventing future incidents.
The Education Law Team at the LLF National Law Firm will work with families to help prevent or minimize a student’s DAEP placement. We put the emphasis on getting a student help to address their misconduct issues through a BIP and other support. Both students and schools benefit from reducing disciplinary issues.
Protect Your Student
For students with disabilities, receiving the help they need can be the difference between succeeding and failing in school. This includes not just special education accommodations but, for students with misconduct and behavioral issues, effective BIPs.
While a DAEP placement can possibly be beneficial for some students, it takes students out of their familiar routines and schedules. For some students with disabilities, this type of change can be detrimental to their ability to learn and may also increase the possibility of behavioral issues.
If your student has a disability and has had disciplinary or behavioral issues or is facing a DAEP placement, contact the Education Law Team at the LLF National Law Firm. You and your family have options, up to and including suing the school. Call us at 888-535-3686 or fill out an online form.