Student Discipline: Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (Letter
Report, 01/25/2001, GAO/GAO-01-210).

Standards for discipline and safety in schools are set primarily by
local school districts. Federal and local regulations provide additional
protections to special education students who misbehave to ensure that
they are not unfairly deprived of their rights to an appropriate
education. GAO reviewed regular and special education discipline
policies to determine whether there are any differences in how disabled
and non-disabled students are disciplined. GAO found the rate of
misconduct among special education students was higher than that of
regular education students. Despite little difference in the actions
taken by schools to discipline regular education and special education
students, a sizeable minority of principals voiced concern that their
schools' discipline policies impeded proper disciplinary action.
Although the 1997 Individuals With Disabilities Education Act amendments
and final federal regulations gave schools more flexibility in handling
discipline issues, GAO's analysis showed that local school district
policies can provide additional protections when compared with
provisions in the final regulations. Restrictive local policies may
alter the balance between protecting the rights of disabled students and
ensuring that administrators are able to maintain a safe and orderly
environment. Because the more common concerns GAO identified about
different treatment for special education students resulted largely from
local policy, changes in federal law will not address these concerns.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  GAO-01-210
     TITLE:  Student Discipline: Individuals With Disabilities
	     Education Act
      DATE:  01/25/2001
   SUBJECT:  Special education
	     Public schools
	     Secondary schools
	     Children with disabilities
	     Safety regulation