Manifestation Determination in Kansas: What Happens When Your Child Faces Suspension or Expulsion

Your child has an IEP and the school is talking about suspension for more than 10 days — or expulsion. Before that happens, Kansas law requires a Manifestation Determination Review. This meeting is one of the most consequential in special education, and most parents walk into it without understanding what it actually decides or what leverage they have.

Here's what you need to know.

What Triggers a Manifestation Determination Review

Under K.A.R. 91-40-38, a Manifestation Determination Review (MDR) must occur within 10 school days of any decision by the school to change a student's placement due to a violation of a code of conduct — if that change constitutes more than 10 consecutive school days of removal.

Common triggers include:

• Suspension recommended for more than 10 consecutive school days
• Expulsion proceedings
• A series of shorter suspensions that collectively constitute a pattern (the school tries to avoid the MDR trigger by keeping each suspension under 10 days, but a pattern of removals that total more than 10 days and constitute a change of placement still triggers the requirement)
• Transfer to an interim alternative educational setting (IAES) for certain offenses involving weapons, drugs, or serious bodily injury

If the school is meeting or has met any of these thresholds and has not conducted an MDR within 10 school days, that is a procedural violation you should document immediately.

The Two Legal Questions

The MDR team — which must include you as the parent and other relevant members of the IEP team — reviews all relevant information (the IEP, teacher observations, behavioral records, evaluation results) and answers two specific questions:

Question 1: Was the conduct in question caused by, or did it have a direct and substantial relationship to, the child's disability?

Question 2: Was the conduct a direct result of the school's failure to implement the IEP?

If the team answers yes to either question, the behavior is legally a manifestation of the disability.

Note what these questions don't say. They don't ask whether the behavior was "understandable" given the disability. They don't ask whether the disability "made" the student do it in some reductive sense. They ask whether there is a direct and substantial relationship, or whether IEP implementation failures contributed.

On Question 2: if your child's IEP includes behavioral supports or a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) that was not being consistently implemented — insufficient training of staff, BIP not followed in certain classrooms, services not delivered as specified — and the behavior incident occurred in that context, the answer to Question 2 may well be yes.

What Happens If It's a Manifestation

If the MDR team determines the behavior was a manifestation of the disability, two things must happen:

1. The school is required to conduct a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) if one hasn't been done, or to review and revise the existing FBA and Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) to address the behavior that led to the disciplinary action.

2. The student must be returned to the placement from which they were removed, unless the parent and the school agree to a different placement as part of the revised IEP.

The school cannot expel a student or impose a long-term change of placement when the behavior is a manifestation of the disability. Their disciplinary options are significantly constrained. This is the protection Congress built into IDEA — it prevents schools from effectively expelling students out of special education by punishing disability-related behavior.

What Happens If It's Not a Manifestation

If the team determines the behavior was not a manifestation of the disability, the school may apply the same disciplinary procedures it would apply to a student without a disability — including expulsion.

However, even then, IDEA's "stay-put" provision means the school must continue to provide educational services during any removal. A student with an IEP who is expelled cannot simply be sent home with no education. The school must provide a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in whatever setting is appropriate. This is a fundamental difference between students with and without IEPs when it comes to discipline.

What You Can Do to Prepare

Before the MDR meeting:

• Request all records relevant to the incident immediately — incident reports, security footage requests, witness statements, and any communication between staff about the behavior
• Review the existing IEP and BIP carefully. Was the BIP actually being implemented? Were the behavioral supports listed in the IEP being delivered as written?
• Think through the connection between your child's disability and the behavior. For a student with ADHD, impulsivity is a core feature of the disability. For a student with autism, a sensory meltdown may look like aggression. For a student with an emotional disability, the behavior may directly reflect the condition the IEP is supposed to address.
• Consider bringing an advocate (Families Together at (800) 264-6343 can sometimes assist) or documenting your own notes carefully

At the MDR meeting:

• Request that all relevant records be present and reviewed by the full team before any determination is made
• If the BIP exists and was not being implemented, raise this explicitly for Question 2
• If you disagree with the team's determination, state your disagreement clearly and note that you wish to add your written disagreement to the record
• You have the right to request expedited due process if you disagree with the MDR determination

Kansas-specific note on recording: Kansas is a one-party consent state under K.S.A. 21-6101. You can legally audio-record the MDR meeting without informing the school. Do it. An MDR meeting's verbal discussion is consequential, and having a verbatim record protects you.

If the School Is Pattern-Managing Suspensions

Some schools avoid the MDR trigger by keeping each individual suspension below 10 consecutive days. However, IDEA makes clear that a pattern of shorter removals that collectively exceed 10 school days and constitute a change of placement still triggers the manifestation determination requirement. If your child is being suspended repeatedly for 3, 4, or 5 days at a time, track the cumulative total and document whether a pattern is forming.

For Kansas-specific MDR timelines, the regulatory citations under K.A.R. 91-40-38, and the exact language for disputing a manifestation determination decision, the Kansas IEP & 504 Blueprint provides a step-by-step guide with template letters for every stage of the process.

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