When is a suspension, not a suspension?

 When is a suspension, not a suspension?

The call comes in around mid-morning.  Can you come to school immediately to pick up your child?   He is having some serious issues with his behavior and we really don’t want to suspend him.   You get to school and your child is not ill; he isn’t even jumping up and down or causing a problem.  He is sitting peacefully in the principal’s outer office, quietly waiting for you.  Your son has ADHD and sometimes he can think better if he uses a fidget or does something else to move his hands.   The teacher had asked the children to sit quietly while she read a story to them.  Sitting quietly did not include playing with a fidget.  Your son wouldn’t stop the fidget thing.  The teacher wasn’t giving an inch since the other kids could sit quietly. 

Schools are under great pressure to cut down on suspensions since kids don’t learn when they are home and not in school.  These “come get your child” calls are known as informal removal.   Federal and state law require that if a child with a disability exhibits a behavior that warrants suspension, a meeting must be held to determine if that behavior is a manifestation of the disability.  If it is, the school needs to fix the situation, not suspend the child.

But if a school asks you to take your child home and you do, there is no record of that, no manifestation hearing, and no changes to the school routine.  Additionally, there won’t be that pesky “10-day suspension” requirement when the appropriateness of the program needs to be examined as a contributing factor in all those suspensions.

The U.S. Office of Education is getting wise to the practice.  It is a de facto denial of education that evades the accountability of the law.  Since the pandemic the instances of these informal removals have increased dramatically.  In July the US Office of Education issued guidance on how this process has to work.  Parents are reporting being called repeatedly after only an hour or so into the school day.  These removals aren’t recorded so there is no way to account for how often they are really happening.  Students of color with disabilities appear to be more often the target.   Staff shortages are accelerating the calls particularly to parents who may not know their rights and just go along with the school’s request.  The guidance from the US Office of Education makes it clear that students who are informally removed have the same rights as kids who are suspended.   Only thing is you have to know your child’s rights to protect those rights.  Just looks a lot like suspension but the school says it isn’t.