Legal Trends Involving Discipline of Students with Disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Virginia Special Education Regulations: Analysis of Virginia Hearing Officer Decisions from 2009 through 2015.

Researchers have noted disparities in the discipline of students with disabilities (Miller & Meyers, 2015; Losen, et al., 2015; Achilles, McLaughlin, & Croninger, 2007; Krezmien, Leone, & Achilles, 2006; Zhang, Katsiyannis, & Herbst, 2004; Fasko, Grubb, & Osborne, 1997). This study reviewed 22 Virginia Special Education Hearing Officer (HO) decisions, issued from 2009 through 2015, to better understand the types of legal issues related to discipline of students with disabilities. Further, the study investigated the factual nuances and trends within the selected hearing officer decisions related to the school district as the prevailing party and the parent as the prevailing party. The author found that the school district typically prevailed at due process on issues involving discipline of students with disabilities, with the Virginia HOs holding that the district complied with the procedure mandates of IDEA. From both the decisions where school districts prevailed as well as the decisions where it did not, the data from the study showed trends that yielded training and practice opportunities for educators and administrators to conduct appropriate and timely FBAs and develop appropriate BIPs and IEP goals aimed to prevent misconduct. Further, it allowed the author to make suggestions for pre-service licensure programs to both learn and practice the procedural and substantive mechanisms set out in IDEA for preventing discipline of students with disability in tandem with Greene’s Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS) model (Greene, 1999; 2016).

Author

• Alhambra, Amir Haroun

Language

• en

Date created

• 2022

Type of Work

• Dissertation

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Educational Administration & Policy Studies

Degree

• Ed.D.

Advisor

• Sherrill Linkous, Kelly

Committee Member(s)

• Sweeney, Mark
• Ihrig, Karen
• Payne, Kim
• Rippner, Jennifer

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/5999n4291