Suspension, Expulsion, and Discipline Rights for Connecticut Special Education Students
Your child was suspended last week. Now the school is talking about an expulsion hearing. You've been told the behavior was serious — but what you haven't been told is that your child has legal rights in this process that the district may not have mentioned.
Students with disabilities face suspension and expulsion at higher rates than their non-disabled peers nationally. Connecticut is no exception. But IDEA and Connecticut law create specific protections for students with disabilities when they face disciplinary removal — protections that change the calculus significantly compared to what happens with non-disabled students.
The Basic Rule: 10-School-Day Threshold
When a district wants to remove a student with a disability from their current educational placement for disciplinary reasons, the first key number is 10 school days.
Short-term removals of 10 school days or fewer — single suspensions, in-school suspensions that remove the student from educational services, or other short removals — are generally permitted without triggering the full procedural protections. For these short removals, IDEA requires services only if the district provides services to a nondisabled student who is similarly removed.
Once a removal exceeds 10 school days in a school year — whether through a single long suspension or multiple shorter ones that accumulate — the protections kick in fully.
The Manifestation Determination
When a disciplinary removal will exceed 10 school days or otherwise constitute a change of placement, the district must hold a manifestation determination meeting within 10 school days of deciding to make that change. This is a meeting of the PPT (or a relevant subset) that answers a critical question: Was the behavior that led to discipline a manifestation of the student's disability?
The manifestation determination asks whether either the disability relationship or the district's failure to implement the IEP is established. A positive manifestation determination generally prevents expulsion, subject to the special-circumstance exceptions below. The district must:
- Return the student to the original placement (unless the parent agrees to a change or the district uses one of the special circumstances exceptions)
- Conduct a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) and implement or review a behavior intervention plan (BIP) as appropriate
- Review and modify the IEP and BIP as needed
For a detailed breakdown of how manifestation determinations work in Connecticut, see the post on Connecticut manifestation determination.
What "Change of Placement" Means for Discipline
A "change of placement" for disciplinary purposes occurs when:
- The removal is for more than 10 consecutive school days, or
- The student has been removed for shorter periods that total more than 10 school days, and the removals form a pattern (similar behaviors, similar duration, similar proximity in time)
When a pattern of removals exists, even if no single removal exceeded 10 days, a manifestation determination may be required before additional removals.
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Services During Removal
Once disciplinary removals exceed 10 school days in a school year or constitute a change of placement, a student with an IEP must receive educational services during the removal.
Those services must enable the student to participate in the general education curriculum, although in another setting, and progress toward the IEP goals.
For a five-day removal, IDEA does not automatically require special-education services unless the district provides services to similarly removed nondisabled students. After the 10-school-day threshold, the services requirement is explicit.
If the district is suspending your child without providing required educational services after the threshold or change of placement, that is likely a violation of your child's right to FAPE.
Special Circumstances Exceptions
There are three situations in which Connecticut districts can unilaterally remove a student with a disability to an Interim Alternative Educational Setting (IAES) for up to 45 school days, even if the behavior is a manifestation of the disability:
- The student carries a weapon to school or a school function
- The student knowingly possesses or uses illegal drugs at school
- The student inflicts serious bodily injury on another person at school
Even in these situations, the student must continue to receive educational services in the IAES, and the manifestation determination process must still occur to determine what happens after the 45-day period.
The Role of the BIP in Preventing Discipline Cycles
Many Connecticut special education students who face repeated disciplinary actions have behavior that is directly related to their disability but have never had a proper Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) or Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP). Without understanding the function of the behavior — what it communicates, what triggers it, what the student gets from it — discipline will address the symptom without resolving the underlying issue.
If your child is facing repeated suspensions, request an FBA in writing. If a disciplinary removal is a change of placement and no FBA has been conducted, IDEA requires an FBA and behavioral intervention services as appropriate; if a BIP already exists, the IEP Team must review and modify it as needed. For more on FBAs and BIPs, see the posts on Connecticut functional behavior assessment and Connecticut behavior intervention plan.
Expulsion: What It Means for Students with IEPs
A positive manifestation determination generally prevents expulsion, subject to IDEA's special-circumstance exceptions. If the determination finds that the behavior was caused by or substantially related to the disability, or resulted from a failure to implement the IEP, the district must follow the manifestation-determination protections.
If the manifestation determination finds no link to the disability, the district can impose the same disciplinary procedures it would apply to non-disabled students. But even then:
- The district must continue to provide educational services during the expulsion period
- The student's special education eligibility and IEP remain in effect
- The services provided during expulsion must allow the student to participate in the general curriculum and progress toward IEP goals
In practice, if the district finds no manifestation and you believe this is incorrect, you can appeal by requesting a due process hearing. If you file over a proposed change in educational placement, stay-put may apply, but disciplinary interim-alternative-setting rules and special-circumstance exceptions can affect the student's placement while the proceedings are pending. For more on this, see the post on Connecticut stay-put rights.
Documentation During Disciplinary Proceedings
If your child is facing suspension or expulsion, document everything immediately:
- Get all disciplinary notices in writing
- Note whether the district provided educational services during each suspension
- Document any PPT meetings about behavior — who attended, what was discussed, what was decided
- Keep copies of the current IEP and BIP, and note whether the behaviors the district is disciplining are addressed in those documents
- Track cumulative suspension days across the school year
Connecticut is a two-party-consent state for civil recordings under C.G.S. §52-570d. Give advance written notice of your intent to record and ask the participants to confirm consent; advance notice alone does not establish consent. E.H. v. Tirozzi recognizes that parent recording may support meaningful participation in circumstances such as language barriers or disabilities. If consent is not confirmed, written notes taken contemporaneously are your documentation tool.
The disciplinary provisions of IDEA exist because research consistently shows that exclusionary discipline — suspension and expulsion — is both overused with students who have disabilities and largely ineffective as an educational intervention. Your child's right to education does not disappear when their behavior becomes challenging. Knowing these rules, and insisting that the district follow them, is core to effective special education advocacy.
For a complete guide to Connecticut discipline rights, FBA and BIP strategies, and step-by-step advocacy through PPT meetings and beyond — get the complete Connecticut IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook.
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