Children and teenagers have misbehaved and struggled with growing pains since the dawn of recorded history. Even so, societies have wrestled with how to handle it. In Texas, school districts have enacted the Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (DAEP) as a solution.
It's a well-meaning program that seeks to help students improve their behavior and overcome emotional obstacles while ensuring they continue receiving a quality education. Unfortunately, it harms as often as it helps, if not more so. Such is the case in the Ysleta Independent School District.
If that's where your child goes to school, and the administrators are considering sending them to a DAEP, don't give in without a fight. The Lento Law Firm Education Law Team is as committed as you are to supporting your child in getting the best care possible, and that doesn't include the DAEP. Schedule a consultation today by calling the Lento Law Firm offices at 888.535.3686 or filling out this contact form.
The Basics of the DAEP
Perhaps you're unclear about the details regarding the DAEP. For the sake of your child's future, it's imperative that you understand what it is and how it works.
How the DAEP Began
For years, the Texas state government was concerned about how to help behaviorally challenged students without sacrificing their education or subjecting their peers and teachers to continuous disruptions. In 1995, the state passed the School Safety Act, which paved the way for the DAEP.
Through the DAEP, a Texas school district can send any extremely disorderly students to their own educational environment. They can receive the mental or emotional assistance they need to control their behavior while keeping up with the curriculum. That way, they can improve while other students and teachers carry on in more traditional learning environments.
DAEP placements are meant to last 30 to 40 days, but with administrative approval, students can stay for up to a year at a time if they're not progressing properly. Like other school districts throughout Texas, the Ysleta Independent School District can tailor its DAEP placements according to the needs of the students and staff.
Reasons for Placement
There's a difference between normal misbehavior and serious offenses. The DAEP is only meant for students who commit egregious code of conduct violations. Examples include:
- A pattern of distracting, destructive, disruptive, or otherwise highly inappropriate behavior at school
- Physical, verbal, or emotional abuse toward peers or staff
- Smoking or vaping on a school campus
- Taking alcohol or illegal drugs to school or related activities and events
- Convictions of state- and federal-level crimes, particularly felonies
Students can also find themselves expelled for these offenses, but that's a more common outcome for the most serious or dangerous crimes or a history of poor behavior with no improvement.
Placement Process
If a teacher in the Ysleta Independent School District recommends that a student be placed in the DAEP, district administrators will investigate to see if they agree. It involves assessing the offending student's guilt and whether a DAEP is an appropriate solution for their specific problems or needs.
As the parent or guardian, you'll receive notification about the investigation. Once it's complete, you can attend conferences with the district administration and possibly the teacher who requested your child's enrollment in the DAEP. If anyone else was involved in the complaint against your child, they might be at the conference, too.
This conference is where the administrators will review evidence, witness testimonies, mitigating circumstances, your child's behavioral and academic history, and any other relevant factors in their events leading to the teacher's recommendation. It's possible that the administrators will decline to send your child to the DAEP, especially if there is a lack of evidence or ill intent or if bullying, homelessness, domestic issues, or learning disabilities play a role.
The Ysleta Independent School District offers an appeals process to students and their parents or guardians in case they disagree with the ruling, but you shouldn't take any chances. You need to have the Lento Law Firm Education Law Team on your side at the conference as foolproof protection for your child against the DAEP.
Why You Should Keep Your Child Out of the DAEP
If you're hesitating to act quickly to prevent your child from getting sent to Cesar Chavez Academy—where the Ysleta Independent School District runs its DAEP—consider all the damage it could cause. After all, despite its noble intentions, the DAEP is known for negatively affecting Ysleta Independent School students in the following ways.
Poor Attendance
Just because Texas schools can send their students to DAEPs doesn't mean they have to provide transportation. School buses are reserved mainly for students attending regular schools, meaning that many DAEP students have to get to the Cesar Chavez Academy in some other way. Since it's often a nearly insurmountable obstacle, they're likely to skip school altogether.
In the 2020-2021 school year, the Ysleta Independent School District reported a chronic absenteeism rate of 8.9%, and the DAEP was likely a significant contributing factor. Texas law requires that students attend at least 90% of their classes to graduate, so if your child becomes part of that statistic, they may have trouble obtaining their diploma without supplemental courses or repeating a year.
Inadequate Academic Instruction
Theoretically, DAEP students are supposed to receive the same quality education as their peers while also learning to fix their behavior. In reality, however, DAEP students end up falling behind academically. According to a study conducted by the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) in 2009, most DAEP students earned substandard grades in math and reading. To make matters worse, DAEP students usually have difficulty transitioning back to their regular schools after completing their disciplinary programs, so they never have a proper opportunity to catch up.
On average, about 56% of students in the Ysleta Independent School District are proficient in reading, whereas roughly 55% score well in math. These figures indicate that the district is capable of setting students up for success in college and adulthood in general, but your child is unlikely to enjoy that benefit if they're placed in the DAEP.
Unjust Placement
Ideally, students would only go to DAEPs if they're truly disruptive, regardless of their race, nationality, background, ability, religion, or other personal characteristics. Unfortunately, the reality is that DAEPs are mostly filled with students from minority communities, including those whose offenses were too insignificant or negligible to warrant such placements.
The Open Society Foundation published a study on this unfairness in 2011, reporting that Black students are likely to get sent to DAEPs even when special education is a more appropriate solution. Reinforcing that data, the IDRA noted in 2018 that Black and Hispanic in general made up disproportionate percentages of DAEP students. Also, despite the fact that DAEPs are meant to address only the most serious behavioral issues and crimes, the IDRA discovered in 2020 that students were often assigned placement for extremely minor infractions, such as chewing gum in class.
By far, the largest demographic in the Ysleta Independent School District consists of Hispanic students. There are also notable numbers of Black, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, and biracial children. Chances are that your child meets the criteria for one of these demographics, so they are more likely than their white peers to unjustly suffer the negative impact of a DAEP.
Social and Emotional Problems
As if emotional health and social aptitude were not already difficult enough for children to master, DAEPs practically stunt their growth in these areas. After all, placement in a DAEP is almost certain to label a student as problematic, intimidating, or a bad influence on others, making positive friendships difficult to form or maintain.
Depression and other mental health issues already impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of adolescents throughout Texas. In fact, at least 17% of the state's teenagers say they struggle with their mental health, and 38% of its high schoolers have experienced persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness on a daily basis for two weeks or longer.
The more your child is forced into the social isolation and emotional turmoil that comes with enrollment in a DAEP, the more likely they are to become numbered among the depressed adolescents in Texas. It could also compel them to act even more recklessly than before.
High Dropout Risk
What's worse than being underprepared for life after high school? The answer, of course, is to not graduate at all. Sadly, considering the difficulties that DAEP students face in attending school and receiving decent instruction, they're at greater risk than their peers of dropping out.
To be more specific, the University of Texas at Austin found that only 44% of students in DAEPs end up graduating. Many students are placed in DAEPs more than once, and in those cases, the number of graduates plummets to 25%.
Although the Ysleta Independent School District recorded that 88% of its students graduated on time during the 2020-2021 school year, 64.1% were considered at high risk of dropping out. If the district places your child in the DAEP, they'll not only become part of that statistic, but they'll be twice as likely to do it.
Greater Likelihood of Committing Crimes
Social alienation, emotional turbulence, mental disorders, and a lack of schooling all combine to make children more likely to use crime to survive and/or vent their frustrations. This could acquaint them with the Texas state juvenile justice system, putting them into frequent contact with other struggling children in addition to disrupting their education. Lifelong criminals commonly begin their careers during adolescence, so they're also more likely to have difficulty finding jobs or housing when they're not in prison.
Luckily, El Paso's crime rate is lower than the national average, but it still provides opportunities for criminals to entrench themselves in patterns of lawbreaking. Given all the ways it could damage your child academically, emotionally, mentally, and socially, the DAEP could push your child into interacting with the city's criminals and developing a lengthy record for violating the law.
Why Hire the Lento Law Firm?
Professional Focus on Education Law and DAEPs
While the Lento Law Firm takes on many types of cases, educational law is one in which they take special care and pride. They've defended students in education law cases all around the world, ensuring bright futures for countless deserving people. Drawing upon such extensive and varied experiences and combining them with their knowledge of local policies, procedures, and programs—including the Disciplinary Alternative Education Program specifically—the Lento Law Firm Education Law Team is more prepared than the average local attorney to protect your child.
Of course, their national renown and diverse experiences don't make them any less accessible to El Paso residents. You can visit them in their office at Wells Fargo Plaza, 221 N., Kansas St., Suite 700, El Paso, TX, 99007.
Personalized Defense Strategies
You know there's more to your child than problematic or disruptive behavior. The Lento Law Firm Education Law Team knows that, too. They'll work with you to design a defense strategy tailored to your child's unique personality, struggles, needs, experiences, and circumstances. By treating your child like a whole person every step of the way, they'll convince the Ysleta Independent School District administration to do the same.
Involvement in Every Step
At no point will the Lento Law Firm Education Law Team leave you guessing or handling an aspect of the district investigation by yourself. They'll be at your side from the beginning to the end, helping you understand what's happening so that you can make informed choices and prepare yourself for every possibility.
The administrative conference will decide whether your child gets sent to a DAEP, and they'll be present for that, too. They'll argue on your child's behalf with the intelligence and charisma necessary to sway the administration in your child's favor.
Keep Your Child Out of the DAEP
If your child needs help overcoming behavioral or emotional issues so that they can succeed in school, the best solutions are outside the DAEP. Don't let the Ysleta Independent School District hurt your child further by sending them there. Instead, call the Lento Law Firm Education Law Team at 888.535.3686 or fill out a contact form to set up the defense they need.
