Louisiana Special Education Discipline Rights: Suspensions, Informal Removals, and IDEA Protections

If your child has an IEP and is being suspended regularly — or if the school keeps calling you to pick them up before the end of the day — you are likely dealing with a discipline situation that triggers specific federal and state protections you may not know about. These protections exist precisely because students with disabilities are at dramatically higher risk of exclusionary discipline, and schools frequently apply punitive measures without following required procedures.

In Louisiana, discipline-related rights for students with IEPs are governed by both IDEA and Bulletin 1706. Understanding exactly where the law draws the line matters enormously.

The 10-Day Rule and Change of Placement

The most critical concept in special education discipline is the 10-day threshold. Under IDEA, a school can remove a student with a disability for up to 10 consecutive school days as it would for any student. But once a removal exceeds 10 consecutive school days — or once a series of short-term removals adds up to more than 10 days in a school year and constitutes a pattern — the removal is legally treated as a "change of placement," and specific procedural safeguards kick in.

A pattern of removals exists when the behavior in each removal incident is substantially similar to previous incidents and the removals are close in proximity to each other. Schools cannot avoid these protections simply by spreading suspensions across multiple incidents rather than using one long suspension.

Once a change of placement is triggered, the school must hold a Manifestation Determination Review (MDR) within 10 school days of the placement decision. The MDR team determines whether the behavior that led to discipline was caused by the child's disability or was a direct result of the school's failure to implement the IEP. If either is true, the behavior is a manifestation of the disability, and the student cannot be expelled — they must return to their prior placement.

Informal Removals: The Discipline Tactic Schools Don't Track

One of the most prevalent — and underreported — discipline practices in Louisiana is the informal removal. This is when a school calls a parent to pick up their child in the middle of the day because of behavioral issues, without formally documenting it as a suspension.

Informal removals are not formally logged as suspension days, which means they do not count toward the 10-day threshold that triggers IDEA protections. A child could be sent home 20 times in a school year through informal removals without the school ever formally initiating an MDR or reviewing the IEP.

Louisiana research consistently identifies this as a widespread problem. Parents in New Orleans and East Baton Rouge have reported patterns of calls asking them to retrieve their child — sometimes multiple times per week — with no disciplinary documentation provided.

What you can do: Document every informal removal yourself. Each time you receive a call to pick up your child, record the date, time, reason given, and length of absence. Then submit a written letter to the special education director asserting that these repeated removals constitute a pattern of exclusionary discipline and requesting that the school: (1) formally document each removal, (2) add them to the running suspension total, and (3) convene an IEP review to address the behavior proactively. Once your documentation is in writing, the school cannot continue to claim these removals do not exist.

Services Must Continue During Extended Removals

Under IDEA, a student with a disability must continue to receive special education services during any removal beyond 10 school days, to the extent necessary to enable the student to continue to participate in the general education curriculum and progress toward their IEP goals. Even a student who is expelled for conduct not related to their disability must continue to receive educational services.

This means a student suspended for 30 days cannot simply sit at home with nothing. The school must arrange for instruction to continue — in an alternate setting if necessary. Failure to provide these services during a suspension is a denial of FAPE.

Corporal Punishment and Students with Disabilities

Louisiana is among the states that still permit corporal punishment in public schools, though many individual districts have banned the practice. For students with disabilities, the use of corporal punishment raises both legal and practical concerns that go beyond what applies to the general student population.

Corporal punishment applied to a child with a disability — particularly those with autism, sensory processing differences, or emotional disturbance — may constitute a violation of the child's IEP if the IEP requires positive behavioral supports or specifies prohibited disciplinary responses. In Jefferson Parish, a federal lawsuit involved a student with autism who was subjected to corporal punishment despite having an IEP that called for specific behavioral supports. That case illustrates how disciplinary practices that conflict with an existing IEP create direct legal liability for the district.

If your child has an IEP and your district still permits corporal punishment, document in writing at the next IEP meeting — or in a separate letter — that you explicitly do not consent to any corporal punishment being used with your child. Ask that this be documented in the IEP under behavioral supports. If the district uses corporal punishment despite that documentation, you have a clear paper trail for both a state complaint and potential civil action.

What IDEA's "Stay Put" Protections Mean in Discipline Situations

During any dispute over a disciplinary placement change, the "stay put" provision of IDEA generally requires the student to remain in their current educational placement while the dispute is being resolved. However, there is an important exception: if the school establishes that the student is substantially likely to cause injury to themselves or others, the school can seek an expedited placement in an Interim Alternative Educational Setting (IAES) for up to 45 school days — even if the behavior is a manifestation of the disability.

This 45-day alternative placement must still provide special education services and must be designed to address the behavior so the student can return to the regular setting. It is not a workaround to exclude a student indefinitely.

The Right to Behavioral Supports Before Punishment

Under Bulletin 1706, if a student's behavior impedes their learning or the learning of others, the IEP team must address this through positive behavioral interventions and supports — not through exclusionary discipline as a first response.

This means that if a student with an IEP is being suspended repeatedly, but the school has never conducted a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) or developed a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP), the school is likely in violation of Bulletin 1706. The proper sequence is: FBA to identify the function of the behavior, BIP to address it with positive supports, and data collection to monitor whether the plan is working. Discipline should follow only when the plan has been implemented and the behavior continues to pose immediate safety risks.

Requesting an FBA and BIP in writing — and specifically invoking Bulletin 1706 Section 523 — creates an enforceable obligation for the school. If they continue suspending your child without completing that sequence, you have grounds for a formal LDOE state complaint.

The Louisiana IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook includes specific documentation templates and letter scripts for parents dealing with repeated suspensions, informal removals, and schools that skip the FBA/BIP process before resorting to exclusion.

Louisiana's special education discipline protections are strong on paper. Making them work in practice requires documenting every removal, knowing the 10-day threshold, and formally invoking the behavioral support requirements before the situation escalates further.

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