Disciplining Students with Disabilities: Essential Point #9

In the July-August 2009 issue of In Case (Council of Administrators in Special Education), Julie Weatherly (attorney with the Weatherly Law Firm) begins a series of articles addressing the discipline of students with disabilities. Here is the ninth essential point...
"As is the case with the use of in-school suspension, a disciplinary removal of a student with a disability from the school bus could constitute a 'change of placement.' It is important to remember that 'placement' generally includes those services set forth in a student's IEP. Thus, it will be important to determine whether transportation is included as a related service on a student's IEP in order to determine whether a 'change of placement' has occurred as a result of a bus suspension.
Again, in the commentary to the 2006 IDEA regulation, the U.S. Department of Education commented that '[w]hether a bus suspension would count as a day of suspension would depend on whether the bus tranportation is a part of the child's IEP. If the bus transportation were a part of the chld's IEP, a bus suspension would be treated as a suspension...unless the public agency provides the bus service in some other way.' The Department of Education went on to note that where bus transportation is not a part of the child's IEP, it is not a suspenstion and that '[i]n those cases, the child and the child's parent have the same obligations to get the child to and from school as a nondisbled child who has been suspended from the bus. However, public agencies should consider whether behavior on the bus is similar to behavior in the classroom that is addressed in an IEP and whether the child's behavior on the bus should be addressed in the IEP or a behavioral intervention plan for the child (71 Federal Regulations 46,715).' Thus, whether bus suspensions may amount to a 'change in placement' will depend upon whether the student's IEP lists transportation as a related service because the student's needs are such that specially designed transportation is required. If transportation is a related service, bus suspension will count toward the 'change of placement' analysis. If it is not a related service, it will not count."