Suspension and Expulsion Rights for Students with Disabilities in Colorado

Your child with an IEP was sent home after a behavioral incident. The school calls it a "safety concern." They want to suspend for 10 days or more. At that point, you're not dealing with standard school discipline — you're dealing with special education law, and the district has specific obligations it cannot skip.

Understanding those obligations before the meeting is the difference between accepting a removal that may deny FAPE and stopping it.

The 10-Day Threshold and What It Triggers

For students with disabilities, the law distinguishes between short-term removals (10 cumulative school days or fewer in a school year) and longer removals. Short removals — a one-day in-school suspension, a two-day out-of-school suspension — are generally permitted without special procedures, provided the district is not creating a pattern of removal that amounts to a change of placement.

Once a removal reaches 10 cumulative school days, or the district seeks a removal that constitutes a change of educational placement, federal and Colorado law impose a set of mandatory procedural safeguards.

The most important of these is the Manifestation Determination Review (MDR). Before the district can impose a long-term suspension or expulsion, the IEP team — including you — must convene within 10 school days to answer two questions:

1. Was the conduct in question caused by, or substantially related to, the child's disability?
2. Was the conduct a direct result of the district's failure to implement the IEP?

If the answer to either question is yes, the conduct is a manifestation of the disability. The district cannot proceed with the suspension or expulsion. Instead, the team must revise the IEP to address the behavior — typically by conducting or updating a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) and developing or revising a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP).

Autism and the Manifestation Determination

For students with autism, ADHD, and other conditions with significant behavioral components, MDRs are frequently contested. Schools have a financial and practical incentive to find that the behavior was not a manifestation of the disability — that finding allows removal to proceed.

But the legal standard is protective. The question is not whether your child "should have known better" or whether other students with the same diagnosis behave differently. The question is whether this child's disability — as documented in their evaluation, their IEP, their behavioral history — contributed to the specific conduct. If your child has autism with a documented history of sensory overload resulting in meltdowns, and the suspension follows a meltdown in an overstimulating environment, the connection is clear.

Before the MDR meeting, pull your child's current evaluation, their IEP goals, any existing BIP, and the incident reports for the specific event. Compare the documented triggers and behavioral patterns in the IEP and evaluation against the circumstances of the incident. The closer the alignment, the stronger the argument that the behavior is a manifestation.

What the District Must Provide During Suspension

Even during a lawful short-term suspension, students with disabilities have rights that students without disabilities do not.

After the 10th cumulative school day of removal in a year, the district must continue to provide FAPE — educational services — to the extent necessary for the child to progress in the general curriculum and advance toward IEP goals. Services do not stop simply because the child is out of school.

During any removal, the district must continue to implement the IEP's required related services. A child receiving 90 minutes of speech therapy per week who is suspended for two weeks does not simply lose those sessions — the district must arrange for them.

The "Special Circumstances" Exception

There is a narrow exception in which school districts can remove a student with a disability to an alternative educational setting for up to 45 school days without going through the MDR process first. These special circumstances apply only when a student:

• Carries or possesses a weapon at school or a school function
• Knowingly possesses or uses illegal drugs at school
• Has substantially inflicted serious bodily injury on another person at school

Even in these cases, the district must still convene an MDR, continue FAPE, and cannot permanently expel the student without following all procedural safeguards. The 45-day alternative placement is a temporary measure, not a final resolution.

If You Believe the MDR Was Wrong

If the MDR team determines the behavior was not a manifestation, and you believe that decision was incorrect, you can challenge it through an expedited due process hearing. The standard timeline for due process is compressed in discipline cases — hearings must be completed within 45 days of the request, without extensions, unless both parties agree to extend.

During the pendency of any expedited due process proceeding, the child may be placed in the interim alternative educational setting proposed by school personnel if it's a special circumstances case, or remains in their current placement if it isn't.

Colorado's HB 24-1063, enacted in 2024, also directly addresses abbreviated school day schedules — a practice that had been used to manage students with behavioral profiles by reducing their instructional day without IEP team authorization. Any reduction in instructional hours must now be individually justified and explicitly approved by the IEP team.

Practical Steps If Your Child Faces Suspension

Act immediately. The 10-day window for an MDR is short, and you need to request the meeting in writing, review your child's records, and prepare your documentation before it convenes.

Send a written email or letter to the special education director requesting the MDR meeting and stating that you expect to receive all records related to the incident before the meeting date. Cite the requirement under 34 C.F.R. § 300.530 for the MDR and your right to records under FERPA.

The Colorado IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook includes a guide to the Manifestation Determination Review process, a checklist for evaluating whether behavior is disability-related, and templates for demanding compliance when disciplinary procedures are not followed. See the full toolkit at /us/colorado/advocacy/.

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