Expectations vs Reality for exceptional students

Corporal or physical punishment in public schools used to be commonplace. In 2000, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) estimated 260 students were physically punished. Of those students, 19 were boys and 241 were girls, a huge disparity between the genders. 

In 2023 House Bill 23-1191 was passed, explicitly prohibiting corporal punishment in public schools. 

In March 2018, GAO reported on the use of discipline, including the prevalence

of restraint and seclusion in K-12 public schools, using CRDC data for school year 2013-14, the most recent available data at the time of the work. 

Nationally, these data showed that the use of restraint and seclusion was very rare, but that

some groups of students, in particular students with disabilities and boys, experience these actions disproportionately. For example, approximately 61,000 students were physically restrained in school year 2013-14, representing about 0.1 percent of all K-12 public school students. Mechanical restraint and seclusion were less prevalent, but again is proportionately affected the same groups of students.

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-19-418t.pdf

Restraint and seclusion disproportionately impact disabled children, African American students, and boys in the United States 

HOUSE BILL 22-1376- School district officials,  school districts, charter schools, and special education directors strongly opposed the bill’s data reporting requirements as overly burdensome and unrealistic...

https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2022a_1376_signed.pdf

Despite being required to report on seclusion and restraint from HB 22-1376, CDE is still failing to report current data https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM1xtOKcKQo

The National Council on Disability found that many students with disabilities do not receive the services  outlined in their IEP, highlighting the importance of legal advocacy  (National Council on Disability, 2000). 

There are several ways a school can violate an IEP. Some common examples include:

• Failing to properly evaluate a child for special education services
• Failing to develop an appropriate IEP
• Refusing to provide the services outlined in the IEP
• Not following the IEP procedures, such as not holding annual meetings or providing proper notice
• Placing a child in a restrictive learning environment without justification

Colorado Children with Disabilities (IDEA) 

Special Education School Year 2022-2023

Dispute Resolution https://www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/sped_data

As  a public service, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) publishes this list  of elementary-secondary and post-secondary institutions that are  currently under investigation. OCR updates the list weekly. 

Between January 2022 and September 2024, there are 108 OCR complaints in Colorado. See what your district looks like. 

https://ocrcas.ed.gov/open-investigations?field_ois_state=643&field_ois_discrimination_statute=702&field_ois_type_of_discrimination=All&items_per_page=20&field_ois_institution=&field_ois_institution_type=All&field_open_investigation_date_1=2022-01-01&field_open_investigation_date_2=2024-09-01&field_open_investigation_date=&field_open_investigation_date_3=&field_open_investigation_date_1=2022-01-01+00%3A00%3A00&field_open_investigation_date_2=2024-09-01+23%3A59%3A59&field_open_investigation_dat_1=2024-9-1+00%3A00%3A00&field_open_investigation_dat_2=2024-9-1+23%3A59%3A59

School discipline has increasingly severe consequences for students on a 504 Plan or IEP. Often, suspensions & expulsions are utilized to manage behaviors.

For school year 2023-24, CDE reports students on a 504 Plan incurred 7, 675 disciplinary actions and students in Special Education faced 31,337 instances of disciplinary action. Of those, 18,389 were out-of-school suspensions.

Colorado HB 22-1376 requires the department of education (department) to collect and  compile data and create reports based on information received from  school districts and charter schools (schools) related to chronic  absenteeism rates, the number of in-school and out-of-school  suspensions, the number of expulsions, the number of students handcuffed  or restrained, the number of referrals to law enforcement, and the  number of school-related arrests. The department shall to annually  update and post such data and reports on its website .

https://www.cde.state.co.us/dropoutprevention/learningenvironmentdistrictprofilereports