Louisiana April Dunn Act: Alternative Diploma Pathway for Students with Disabilities

For years, Louisiana students with disabilities who could not meet standard course requirements faced a binary: either earn a diploma through a path designed for students without significant learning differences, or leave school with a certificate of attendance that opened almost no doors. The April Dunn Act changed that — but only if schools actually apply it, and many do not.

If your child is approaching high school or is already in it, understanding this law before graduation requirements become a crisis is one of the most valuable things you can do right now.

Who April Dunn Was and Why the Act Carries Her Name

April Dunn was a Louisiana disability rights advocate who spent her career fighting for access and inclusion for people with disabilities. She passed away in 2019. Act 833 of 2014 is the former law associated with the April Dunn Act. It established a pathway allowing eligible students with disabilities to use Individualized Performance Criteria (IPC) toward a standard high school diploma through the applicable TOPS University or Jump Start pathway.

The Act represents a significant shift: rather than treating the standard diploma as the only legitimate credential, Louisiana now recognizes that a student who demonstrates competency through an IEP-aligned curriculum has earned something real. This pathway leads to a standard Louisiana high school diploma; it is not a "special" diploma or certificate of attendance.

Who Is Eligible

To qualify for the April Dunn Act pathway, a student must:

1. Have an active IEP
2. Have failed to achieve at least Basic or Approaching Basic on math and ELA assessments in two of the three middle-school years (6th, 7th, and 8th grades)
3. Meet the Act's other applicable eligibility criteria

The IEP team — which includes the parent — determines whether the student will use the standard-assessment or IPC pathway. The school cannot select the pathway unilaterally; the parent participates in the team decision.

It is equally important to understand what eligibility does not mean: a student is not placed on the alternative pathway simply because they have an IEP. The pathway depends on the Act's eligibility criteria and the IEP team's determination. Many students with IEPs remain on the standard diploma track with accommodations and modifications.

The 30-Day Course Rule

This is the provision that most families never hear about and most schools fail to follow correctly.

Under the April Dunn Act's implementing regulations, the IEP team determines whether a student will use the standard-assessment pathway or Individualized Performance Criteria (IPC) within the first 30 days of entering a course.

This is a course-entry window, not a 30-day implementation deadline measured from the IEP meeting. The team documents the selected pathway and applicable criteria in the IEP.

If the required determination is missed, preserve the relevant IEP and course-enrollment records and request an IEP review or other appropriate corrective action.

What Schools Get Wrong

The most common failures parents encounter:

Failure to inform. IEP teams routinely fail to tell families the April Dunn Act exists. A parent sitting at an IEP meeting in 9th grade whose child is headed toward course failure is almost never told "there is an alternative diploma pathway — would you like to discuss whether it's appropriate for your child?" Transition planning must be addressed by age 16, so graduation-pathway discussions should be documented as part of that planning. Failure to address the available pathway can be a procedural gap.

Treating it as a last resort. Some schools wait until a student has failed multiple courses before mentioning the alternative pathway. By then, a student's confidence has been damaged, their transcript has failures, and the alternative pathway feels like a consolation prize rather than a deliberate, appropriate choice. The conversation should happen during transition planning, which must be addressed by age 16.

Applying it without team consensus. In the opposite direction, some schools place students on the alternative pathway without meaningful parent participation in the decision. If your child's IEP notes an alternative diploma pathway and you were not part of that decision, or do not recall it being discussed, request a copy of the meeting notes and the documentation showing how the team made the decision.

Missing the 30-day course window. The determination is tied to the first 30 days of entering the course. If the team did not decide or document the pathway in that period, preserve the relevant IEP and course records and request review.

What to Do If the School Has Not Applied the April Dunn Act

If your child is in high school, has an IEP, and the alternative diploma pathway has never been discussed, your first step is requesting that the IEP team reconvene to discuss graduation requirements and post-secondary transition. Transition planning must be addressed by age 16, and the pathway decision should be documented by the IEP team.

In that meeting, ask explicitly: "Has the team considered whether the April Dunn Act alternative diploma pathway is appropriate for my child?" If the answer is "we haven't considered it," that is a procedural gap. Request that the team document its analysis of the alternative pathway option in the IEP, even if the decision is that the standard diploma remains appropriate.

If you believe the alternative pathway was appropriate and the required course-entry determination was not made in time, causing your child to remain in inappropriate courses or to receive failing grades that should not be on their transcript, a formal state complaint to LDOE is an available mechanism. Document the IEP meeting dates, the graduation pathway discussion (or absence thereof), the course-entry window, and the course enrollment records.

The Louisiana IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook covers the April Dunn Act transition planning requirements, the specific IEP language to request, and how to document failures to address the 30-day course window.

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