Discipline Basics: Removals and the 10-Day Rule

Discipline Basics: Removals and the 10-Day Rule

Every IEP requires the IEP Team to answer whether the student has behavior that impedes his or her own learning or the learning of others. When the answer is yes, the team must act — the question cannot be checked and left unaddressed. Proactive behavior planning is the first and best protection for both the student and the LEA, because a well-developed behavior plan reduces the behavior that leads to removals.

Legal Citations

• IDEA — discipline procedures (Section 615(k))

• 34 CFR Part 300 — removals (300.530(b)–(d))

• Alabama Administrative Code, Chapter 290-8-9

Practical Guidance

The first ten cumulative removal days in a school year proceed under the same rules applied to students without disabilities, with no special education services required. LEAs should maintain a running count of each student's removal days across the entire school year, including partial days, and including removals from the bus if the student would otherwise not receive transportation.

On the eleventh cumulative day, the student must receive the services described below, and the LEA must convene the IEP Team. Also — critically — a removal of more than ten consecutive school days, or a series of removals that form a pattern, is a change of placement. A pattern exists when the removals total more than ten school days, the behavior is substantially similar to previous behavior, and additional factors such as length of each removal and proximity of removals to one another point the same way. Whether a pattern exists is decided case by case by LEA personnel.

Any change of placement for disciplinary reasons requires: the Notice and Invitation to a Meeting/Consent for Agency Participation (checking "Conduct Manifestation Determination"), the Notice of Proposal or Refusal to Take Action, and a copy of Special Education Rights — disciplinary action resulting in a change of placement is one of the required trigger points for providing procedural safeguards.

After the tenth cumulative day, the LEA must provide the student with services to the extent necessary to enable the student to continue to participate in the general education curriculum and progress toward IEP goals, even though the student is in another setting. An appropriate school official (with the special education director or designee) determines what services are needed during removals that are not a change of placement.

Common Errors Identified Through Monitoring

• A removal day count that omits partial days, bus suspensions, or removals across schools in the same school year

• Services not provided after the tenth cumulative removal day

• A pattern of removals treated as ordinary short-term removals without the required change-of-placement procedures

• Special Education Rights not provided when disciplinary action results in a change of placement

Alabama State Department of Education — Special Education Services (SES)

Materials are provided for technical assistance purposes and do not constitute legal advice.