When does a public school system have the legal right to turn away a child with severe mental illness?

Question

this child disrupts an entire school every day, with lock downs, restrains, and screaming profanity. He has put several teachers on short term disabilily and hurt other children with in the school.

Answer 1

The school has to provide services, Federal Law.

The school has to provide services in the least restrictive environment.  One big consideration is the needs of the student, must be a safe place for everyone.  This is the only aspect I see that would take the student out of the regular school environment.

Answer 2

The school system does not have the right to turn the child away, however there are other options.  Center based (all special ed) programs are available, homebound services, hospitalization services, community mental health programs, private schools, etc.  Because it sounds as though the child receives sped services, his local district would have to foot the bill for an alternate placement.  By the way, I teach in a center base program, and your description sounds like several of my students that have had both cognitive impairments and mental illness (two very different things).  The right setting can be found, and there are many of us out there who truly enjoy working with these kinds of students.

Answer 3

The district (not the school) has to educate the child by law. However, they don't have to serve the child in a "traditional" public school setting. They can place the child in a "restrictive" educational environment (home-bound, hospital, residential setting, etc) through the IEP process. Especially since the child has demonstrated that they are dangerous to themselves and others.

Answer 4

Unfortunately they don't. It is another example of laws that go too far. When I worked in special ed we had a student, very large and very fit, that was mentally challenged, he started fights, couldn't control his anger, and held one of the staff down. They had me, a tall but scrawny woman, take him off campus with a group of other physically challenged kids and told me if he wanted to hit me to let him but it needed to be a closed fisted hit. Then we could expel. We had another student that would come after you and grab your neck.. all of this with very fragile kids.

It makes no sense. I think these people should have the right to an integrated education but only to the degree that it does not interfere with the education of the majority in the school.

Answer 5

The school is no doubt already working on the process of removing him, but it takes weeks to even months sometimes to document each occurance, have the required meetings, have him analyzed by the behavior specialist, ect.  The school definately has a legal right to have him transferred to a different setting, but as we all know, the legal process is s l o w.

Answer 6

The school must provide services.  However, if the student is hurting others (staff or students) the IEP team can meet and have the child placed on homebound instruction.  In the IEP, the team would state how those tutoring/teaching hours would be completeted and how the child would be reevaluated to be brought back into the school for regular instruction.

The school could also state that they would only allow him there for half of the day.  (I did this for several students & it can be the trick.  Medication usually has "peak" of when it is most effective.)

The school system has to have a backbone.  The laws are there.  Yes, we are required by federal statues to provide education, but it doesn't have to be for six hours a day, five days a week.  

I firmly believe this is why so many special education degree seeking college students leave the field.  They see these types of behaviors and feel extremely inadequate.  Would you want your life dedicated to this at 19 or 20?  No, of course most of us would not.  Then you have the teachers who go out on short term disability and use their time to look for other employment.  Do you blame them?

I'm surprised more parents of other students haven't begun to speak out and sue school systems on the grounds of safety and mental well-being.

Answer 7

I see it highly unlikely that the school is calling a lock down for someone who "SHOULD" be in a classroom? He needs a differant setting if that means the school needs to provide a seperated classroom with a individual teacher for this student . There is something going on that he cant handle since not knowing what his actual disability is I cant say but my son has autism and when he has an outburst there is a reason if he hits there is a reason. He is trying to control himself but we or people keep doing differant things that he hasnt learned or understand on how to control so it upsets him.

Answer 8

The school's responsibilities are different from state to state.  But generally speaking, a public school is obligated to offer services for any disabilities they have identified.  That is, if they find, through testing, a disability which interferes with that child's education, they must provide services for it.  So maybe the building he is in is not appropriate for him.  In that case, the district can move him to a different setting, but they must foot the bill for it and provide transportation.

Answer 9

The parents are probably using every legal tecnicality there is to keep this child in the public school. I have run into situations like that before. Some of these kids are very dangerous. The parents of the other kids need to organize and petitition the school board to remove this child.