Louisiana Stay Put Rights: Protecting Your Child's IEP Placement During Disputes

You receive a letter from the school district. Your child's placement is being changed, services are being reduced, or they are being moved to a more restrictive setting. The letter gives you 10 days to respond. You do not agree.

Here is what many parents do not know: the moment you file for due process in Louisiana, a federal protection called stay-put takes effect. Your child's current educational placement is legally frozen. The school cannot implement the change until the dispute is resolved.

This protection is one of the most powerful tools in special education law — and one of the least understood.

What Stay-Put Actually Is

Stay-put (formally called "pendency" under IDEA) is the provision of federal law that prohibits a school from changing a student's educational placement while a due process complaint is pending. The placement remains as it was in the "last agreed-upon IEP" — the most recent IEP that was implemented with parental consent.

The protection applies from the moment the parent files a due process complaint. It does not require a hearing. It does not require a judge's order. Filing the complaint activates it immediately.

"Placement" under stay-put is interpreted broadly by courts and hearing officers. It encompasses not just where a student is educated (inclusion vs. self-contained classroom vs. separate facility) but also the nature and amount of services written into the IEP — hours of speech therapy, occupational therapy minutes, paraprofessional support, and extended school year services.

If the school proposes to reduce a student from 120 minutes per week of speech-language therapy to 60, and the parent files for due process, the 120-minute level is frozen until the dispute is resolved.

Louisiana's Act 512 and the 10-Day Window

Louisiana's Act 512 (2024) added a state-law layer to this protection. When an LEA in Louisiana proposes to reduce a student's special education services, it must provide the parent with 10-day written notice before implementing the change.

That 10-day window is your filing window. A due process complaint filed within 10 days of receiving the service reduction notice will activate stay-put before the change takes effect. If you wait until day 11, the reduction may already have been implemented — and while stay-put can still apply retroactively, it is considerably messier to restore services than to prevent the reduction in the first place.

When you receive a service reduction notice under Act 512:

1. Note the date of the notice and count 10 business days
2. Request a meeting to discuss the proposed change (you have this right under IDEA)
3. If the meeting does not produce an agreement you are satisfied with, file for due process before day 10

Filing does not mean you are committed to a full hearing. Approximately 80% of due process cases nationally resolve through settlement before the hearing date. Filing activates stay-put and changes the negotiating dynamic; it does not foreclose resolution.

The Last Agreed-Upon Placement

Stay-put applies to the "last agreed-upon" placement — the most recently implemented IEP that both the school and parent agreed to. This definition creates some complexity.

If you have never signed an IEP — because every proposed IEP has been disputed — the question of what constitutes the "current placement" becomes contested. Courts have generally held that the current placement is whatever the student has been receiving, regardless of whether a formal IEP agreement exists.

If your child is transitioning from one school setting to another for the first time — for example, from early intervention (EarlySteps) to school-based services at age 3, or from elementary to middle school with a new placement proposal — stay-put may apply to the sending school's placement pending resolution, or to the proposal you agreed to most recently. These are fact-specific determinations that an attorney can advise on.

The Three Exceptions

Stay-put has three narrow exceptions written into IDEA where a school can immediately change a student's placement without waiting for dispute resolution:

1. Weapons. A student who brings a dangerous weapon to school can be placed in an interim alternative educational setting for up to 45 school days, regardless of stay-put.

2. Drugs. A student who knowingly possesses, uses, sells, or solicits the sale of a controlled substance at school or a school function can be placed in an interim alternative setting for up to 45 school days.

3. Serious bodily injury. A student who has inflicted serious bodily injury on another person at school or a school function can be placed in an interim alternative setting for up to 45 school days.

In these three circumstances only, the LEA may act unilaterally. Even then, the student must continue to receive educational services and services specified in the IEP during the alternative placement. And the school must convene an IEP meeting within 10 school days of the disciplinary change to review the incident.

These exceptions are narrow and do not create a general "safety" exception. A student with behavioral challenges — even significant ones involving aggression — is not automatically excepted from stay-put because the school describes the behavior as dangerous. The behavior must meet the specific legal threshold of serious bodily injury under IDEA's definition, which requires a substantial risk of death, extreme physical pain, protracted and obvious disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of a body part or organ.

Stay-Put and Manifestation Determination

When a student with an IEP faces suspension of more than 10 school days for conduct that is related to their disability, a manifestation determination review must occur. Stay-put interacts with this process directly.

If the parent disagrees with the manifestation determination — specifically, if the school determines the behavior was NOT a manifestation of disability when the parent believes it was — filing for due process activates stay-put as to the student's placement during the appeal. The student remains in the last agreed-upon placement, which is typically the special education setting, not a disciplinary alternative.

This is one of the most time-sensitive applications of stay-put in Louisiana practice. The manifestation determination meeting happens quickly, the school may immediately propose an expulsion or long-term alternative placement, and the window to file and activate stay-put is narrow.

If your child is in a disciplinary situation involving a manifestation determination, contact a special education attorney or experienced advocate immediately — the timeline is compressed and the stakes are high.

The Louisiana IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook covers stay-put rights in detail, including the Act 512 10-day window, the manifestation determination timeline, and the exact language to use in a due process complaint that clearly invokes pendency.

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