It’s normal for kids to act out and make mistakes sometimes. However, Texas has a procedure for dealing with repeat and/or serious offenders—the Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (DAEP).
Though it’s meant to rehabilitate its students without interrupting their education, it frequently harms them academically, mentally, and emotionally. Nevertheless, institutions throughout the state—including those in the United Independent School District of Laredo, Texas—utilize the program.
If your child is struggling behaviorally at school, you can get them the help they need without resorting to the DAEP. Just ask the LLF National Law Firm Education Law Team to support you. Schedule a consultation today by calling the LLF National Law Firm offices at 888.535.3686 or filling out this contact form.
A Brief Overview of the DAEP
As a Texas resident, you may have heard of the state’s Disciplinary Alternative Education Program, but how much do you really know about it? To understand why you should act urgently to keep your child out of it, you must first learn the basics of how the DAEP works.
Inception
The Texas state government established the DAEP through the School Safety Act of 1995, intending to separate exceptionally disruptive or unruly children from their peers for everyone’s benefit. The more well-behaved students and their teachers could focus on thriving in a secure and constructive learning environment while the students in DAEP received extra attention for their behavior in addition to academic instruction.
Each DAEP placement is only supposed to last 30 to 40 days, though administrators can extend it up to a year if the student in question isn’t showing signs of improvement. School districts could customize the DAEP however they saw fit for their needs.
Reasons for Placement
Poor behavior is a broad category, so what exactly could land a student in the DAEP? Merely texting in class or talking back to the teacher would probably not warrant a DAEP placement, but other common violations of school codes could do so. Examples include:
- Bringing alcohol or illegal drugs to school or school-sponsored activities
- Vaping or smoking on the campus
- Bringing weapons to school or school-sponsored activities
- Physically or verbally assaulting another person at school or school-sponsored activities
- Regular and/or excessive disruptions during classes
- Anything that would be considered a crime under state or federal law, especially felonies
Expulsion is a possibility as well, but that’s usually reserved for extremely serious, dangerous, or violent crimes.
Process for Placement
Luckily, students aren’t sent to the DAEP simply because a teacher requests it. Administrators must first investigate to determine if the student is even guilty of the behavior of which they’re accused and whether the DAEP would be a suitable response.
First, the administration notifies you about the pending investigation that will decide whether they will receive placement in the DAEP. You’ll be invited to attend a conference with the district administration, the teacher who ordered your child’s removal (if applicable), and any other appropriate parties. This is when it’s most important for you to have an attorney from the LLF National Law Firm Education Law Team at your side; they can argue in support of your child directly to the administration.
During the conference, the administration will take multiple factors into account when choosing the next steps for your child. Insufficient evidence, learning disabilities, domestic problems, homelessness, actions made in self-defense, lack of intent to cause harm, and a history of otherwise clean behavior could all spare your child from the DAEP. You can always appeal the administration’s decision if you disagree with it.
The Potential Consequences of Enrollment in DAEP
Clearly, the DAEP was designed with good intentions. Unfortunately, it has proven to cause or worsen many problems for troubled youth in Texas, including those residing in the United Independent School District. Students in this region often experience the following.
Damage to Reputation and Relationships
Social skills and emotional health are essential for kids, and they’re difficult to develop during adolescence. Placement in a DAEP tends to make it even harder. If your child is placed in a DAEP, they could end up with a negative reputation that would damage their relationships with their peers. They could lose friends and have difficulty making new ones.
A study published on community health in Laredo from 2022 to 2023 indicated that about 20.2% of the city’s population struggles with depression. That’s higher than the average for the rest of Texas and the United States in general. Because of how your child might suffer from social ostracization and stigmatization in the United Independent School District, they’re more likely to be counted among that percentage if they must go to a DAEP. Depression, in turn, could lead to dangerous or reckless decisions that would worsen their situation.
Poor Attendance
Texan school districts can require students to enroll in DAEPs, but they’re not obligated to provide transportation. Most buses are used for taking students to regular schools, so children in DAEPs must find their own way to get to class. For many of them, it’s a nearly impossible task, so their attendance rates drop. If they develop it, depression would be another obstacle to their motivation.
Under Texas law, students must attend at least 90% of their classes to pass. The United Independent School District has a chronic absenteeism rate of 6.5%, and much of that can likely be attributed to students in DAEPs. If your child is assigned to one, they might miss so many classes that they’ll have to complete supplemental instruction programs or even repeat a year.
Subpar Academic Instruction
DAEPs are supposed to maintain the same level of quality education as the regular schools in their districts while addressing student behaviors. Unfortunately, that is seldom the case. In 2009, the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) reported that most students in DAEPs underperformed in math and reading tests. Additionally, many schools struggle with transitioning DAEP students back to their regular campuses and classes, causing them to fall back even further behind their peers.
Currently, about 48% of the students in the United Independent School District score proficiently in math while 54% do so in reading. Those percentages are both higher than the corresponding national averages, so many students in the district get a great start to higher academia and adulthood. Because DAEPs don’t offer sufficient instruction, your child could miss out on such opportunities and advantages if they spend time in one.
Greater Likelihood of Dropping Out
Considering the likelihood that DAEP students will have trouble with their social reputations, emotional well-being, attendance, and grades, they’re more likely than their peers to drop out of school altogether. In fact, just 44% of students who were placed in a DAEP graduated from high school. That rate dropped to 25% for students who went to a DAEP more than once, which is common.
In the 2021 to 2022 school year, the United Independent School District enjoyed a graduation rate of 97.2%. Nevertheless, at the same time, about 64% of the students were assessed as high school dropout risks, and DAEP students are twice as likely to follow through. If your child goes to a DAEP, they’re more likely to join that statistic, and dropping out would impact their future for years to come.
Higher Chances of Turning to Crime
Children who struggle to succeed socially, emotionally, and/or academically may turn to crime as an outlet or means of survival. As minors, this could mean frequent contact with the state juvenile justice system, further interrupting their studies and pushing them to befriend negative influences. Since most career criminals start as adolescents, they might spend additional time in prison and have difficulty finding honest work or adequate housing.
Although Laredo is known for being one of the safest cities in Texas, crime still occurs there, as well as in nearby areas. Since a DAEP increases the odds that your child would experience many of the factors that most commonly drive citizens to lives of crime, a placement in such a program could be the first step your child takes toward a self-destructive life path.
Unfair or Inequitable Placement
In a perfect world, the DAEP would always treat students fairly. However, too many students placed in such programs are part of minority communities and/or committed infractions too minor for such a harsh punishment.
For example, the Open Society Foundation discovered in 2011 that an unjustly high number of Black students are sent to DAEPs when they would do better in special education. Also, according to the IDRA in 2018, disproportionate percentages of Black and Hispanic students in general get placed in DAEPs. In 2020, the IDRA further noted that the reasons for DAEP placement were sometimes as minor as chewing gum in class, which is contrary to the program’s original purpose as a method to address serious crimes and violations.
The vast majority of Laredo’s population is Hispanic, and other minority races make up almost 2%. This means your child is likely among these communities and may end up in a DAEP simply because of the conscious or unconscious biases of the United Independent School District’s teachers and administration. In other words, they could experience all these negative outcomes for no justifiable reason.
How Can the LLF National Law Firm Help?
Holistic Defense Strategies
The LLF National Law Firm Education Law Team sees your child the way you see them—a human being with great potential who just needs a fair chance to succeed. Not only will this drive them to design the most effective defensive strategy possible, but it will also inspire them to help the district administration understand your child’s needs, motivations, and unique circumstances. Sympathetic administrators are less likely to assign your child to DAEP if they see them as a whole person rather than just a number with a problematic student record.
Experience with Education Law and DAEP
With offices all around the United States, all of them renowned for their successes and dedication to quality, the LLF National Law Firm has a remarkable track record for defending students in education law cases. They also have a history of dealing specifically with the Disciplinary Alternative Education Program.
It’s a combination of experience that smaller local law firms simply don’t have and can’t replicate. By drawing upon their knowledge and strategies that have been tried and proven true throughout the country and in Texas, the LLF National Law Firm Education Law Team can provide a personalized and innovative defense for your child.
You can easily visit an attorney in person at the LLF National Law Firm office in Austin, TX, just a four-hour drive from Laredo. The address is 7600 Chevy Chase Dr., Suite 300, Austin, TX, 78752.
Hands-On Guidance
Once you’ve hired the LLF National Law Firm Education Law Team, they’ll be with you on every step of the journey toward freeing your child from the DAEP. Thanks to their familiarity with the investigation and disciplinary process in the United Independent School District, they can give you the advice you need on what to say, what evidence to gather, how to document conversations with teachers and administrators, how to interpret the school district’s policies, and more.
Additionally, you can count on them to be at the conference with the district administrators who will determine whether your child will be enrolled in a DAEP. With efficiency, charisma, and powerful arguments, they’ll present the information and evidence you provide in your favor and advocate capably for your child.
Protect Your Child From the DAEP
All children with behavioral issues in the United Independent School District deserve a chance to genuinely improve and receive a quality education alongside their peers. That might not happen with the DAEP. Let the LLF National Law Firm Education Law Team advocate for them and save their future. Get started by calling the LLF National Law Firm at 888.535.3686 or filling out our contact form.