U.S. Adjusts Discipline Rules for Disabled Pupils

The Education Department issued new regulations Friday that will allow public schools to discipline disabled students as they would their non-disabled classmates.

Unveiling a thick tome of new regulations governing special education programs, officials said that school administrators may suspend special-education students for as long as 10 days for major infractions of school rules without making special provisions for them. But for longer or subsequent suspensions, the new federal regulations require schools to provide whatever services might be necessary to allow a child to progress in his or her educational plan.

Those services could range from as little as sending classwork home to furnishing tutors, psychological counseling and health care assistance at home.

Federal officials said that the new guidelines will help strengthen the hands of school administrators in coping with discipline problems among the nation’s 6 million students with physical, mental and learning disabilities.

But amid a heated national argument about educational resources for special education students, officials in Washington acknowledged that their rules on home schooling for disabled children who have been disciplined could irk some school administrators, who believe that they already must deal with heavy federal mandates to educate all children with disabilities.

“Our balanced position on discipline may leave both [sides] less than pleased,” Education Secretary Richard W. Riley said.

The federal regulations spell out for parents, teachers and school administrators how they must interpret amendments that Congress made in 1997 to the landmark Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. When it was adopted in 1975, the law--commonly called IDEA--required school districts to provide “a free and appropriate public education” to all disabled students. But lawmakers feared that school districts might seek to avoid that responsibility in difficult cases. So they barred schools from suspending children from school for more than 10 days because of disciplinary problems--or 45 days in instances of gun possession. And they directed the federal Education Department to draw up everyday rules to carry out the law.

Under rules in place until now, a child could not be suspended for more than 10 days unless all parties, including the child’s parents, agreed that the disciplinary infraction was not attributable to the child’s disability.

The regulations issued Friday make it far easier for school officials to suspend a disabled student for disciplinary problems. They allow a special education student to be transferred to an “appropriate interim educational setting” for up to 45 days if the child carries a firearm into school, possesses or takes drugs on school property or is “substantially likely to injure” himself or others. Such disciplinary action also will trigger a review of the child’s personal curriculum and school officials in most cases will be required to order a study of the child’s behavioral problems.

In California, where the number of children with physical, emotional and learning disabilities has increased by 35% in the last decade, both discipline and the cost of providing special education services have been heavily debated. Of the $3.7 billion spent annually on special education in California, all but $182 million in federal funding is paid from state, local and school district monies.

And disciplinary problems are both numerous and costly for the state. According to 1995-96 data released by the Education Department on Friday, 16,653 of the state’s 565,670 special education students were classified as disabled by emotional disturbances. Of those, roughly 9,300 share classrooms and schools with non-disabled students and about 7,050 are taught in separate facilities--the most costly option for school districts.

Judith E. Heumann, assistant secretary of Education in charge of special education programs, said Friday that fewer than 1% of disabled students are involved in severe disciplinary incidents--a rate similar to that among students without disabilities.

But Doreen Lohnes, assistant superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District in Orange County, said that for children with emotional disturbances and learning disabilities, discipline can be a special problem. In California, 107,500 children are considered learning disabled.

“Children who have learning disabilities will have a higher degree of emotionality and have a more difficult time,” said Lohnes. Reacting to sketchy details of Friday’s regulations, Lohnes expressed guarded satisfaction that on many disputes over discipline, including this one, the Education Department had bowed to school administrators seeking greater flexibility.

Berkeley-based disabilities attorney Diane J. Lipton disagreed, saying that parents and advocates for the disabled “may be somewhat disappointed” with the new disciplinary guidelines. “It appears that school districts will be allowed to stop services for short-term suspensions,” she said. “And for some children, we know that school districts--inconsistently--use suspensions as a primary way of dealing with problems.”