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 may not be logged as suspension days, but they can still be relevant to whether short-term removals form a pattern constituting a change in placement. They do not automatically count as official suspension days, and the district should assess the pattern under IDEA.

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 provide those details to the special education director and ask the district to assess whether the removals form a change-in-placement pattern and whether an MDR is required. Request an IEP review to address the behavior proactively.

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 why a disciplinary practice that conflicts with an existing IEP can support a state complaint or other legal claim.

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, disciplinary exceptions can apply, including an Interim Alternative Educational Setting (IAES) for up to 45 school days for certain special-circumstances offenses. A hearing officer may also order a different placement when remaining in the current placement is substantially likely to result in injury to the student or others.

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), request that the IEP team address the behavior under Bulletin 1706. Section 523 supports defining the target behavior, collecting baseline data, and using a positive BIP with data collection; if the plan is ineffective after approximately two weeks, it should be reviewed and revised.

Requesting an FBA and BIP in writing — and specifically invoking Bulletin 1706 Section 523 — creates a record of the request and gives the district an opportunity to address the required behavioral supports. If it does not, the documentation may support 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.

See more Louisiana guides →