Federal Legislation

  1. Gun Free Schools Act. In 2002, Congress passed the Gun Free Schools Act, which states that any state receiving federal education money must have a law in effect requiring local school districts to expel from school for a period of not less than one year a student who is determined to have brought a firearm to a school, or to have possessed a firearm at a school.1 The law allows for modification of the expulsion requirement for a student on a case-by-case basis if such modification is in writing.
  2. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Special protections are available to children with learning-related disabilities who are eligible for special education and have Individualized Education Programs (IEP’s) or who, prior to the disciplinary event, should have been identified as having a learning-related disability.2 These protections apply if the student is suspended for a period of time exceeding 10 days, either consecutively or cumulatively (so long as the accumulated suspensions represent a pattern of misbehavior).
    1. Continuation of educational services. During a suspension period of more than 10 days, a special education student is entitled to continued educational services.3 Those services do not need to be delivered in the traditional school setting, but the child must continue to have services necessary to enable the child to progress in the general curriculum and appropriately advance toward achieving IEP goals.4
    2. Protection from suspension when the behavior is a manifestation of the child’s disability. Prior to suspending a child eligible for special education services from school for more than ten days, a school must conduct a “Manifestation Determination Review.”5 The purpose of this review is to protect a child from being excluded from school if his or her behavior is a symptom of the disability. A suspension may not occur “if the conduct in question was caused by, or had a direct and substantial relationship to, the child’s disability; or if the conduct in question was the direct result of the local educational agency’s failure to implement the IEP.”6
1 20 U.S.C. §7151.
2 20 U.S.C. §1415(k)(1)(D).
3 20 U.S.C. §1415(k)(3).
4 20 U.S.C. §1412(1)(A); 20 U.S.C. §1415(k)(3); 34 C.F.R. § 300.121(d).
5 20 U.S.C. §1415(k)(4).
6 20 U.S.C .§(k)(1)(E).

School Discipline Law Affecting NC Public School Students