Can a Student With an IEP Be Suspended? 10-Day and 45-Day Rules

Yes, a student with an IEP can be suspended, but only within limits. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a school can suspend a student with an IEP for up to 10 school days in a year for a code-of-conduct violation, the same as any other student. Once removals cross that 10-day line, federal protections take over: the school has to keep educating the child, and a team has to decide whether the behavior was connected to the disability before any longer suspension or expulsion can move forward.

The 10-Day Rule for Short Suspensions

For the first 10 school days of removal in a year, the school can discipline a student with an IEP just as it would any other student. During those initial days, the school doesn’t have to provide educational services unless it provides them to non-disabled students who are similarly suspended.¹

Parents often miscount those days. In-school suspensions count when the student is pulled from their regular setting and can’t access IEP services or the general curriculum. If transportation is listed as a related service on the IEP, a bus suspension counts too. The days add up across the school year, so three separate two-day suspensions already burn six of the ten.

When a Suspension Becomes a Change of Placement

Two situations turn routine discipline into a legally significant change of placement. Any single removal longer than 10 consecutive school days is automatically a change of placement. A series of shorter removals can also add up to one if they form a pattern, which the school judges case by case based on whether the total exceeds 10 days in a year, whether the behavior is substantially similar across incidents, the length of each removal, and how close together they occurred.²

Once a removal counts as a change of placement, two things must happen. The school has to keep providing educational services so the student can participate in the general curriculum and keep progressing on IEP goals, even in a different setting.³ And the school has to convene a Manifestation Determination Review. If parents believe the school is deliberately keeping removals just under the threshold, the school’s pattern analysis is itself challengeable through due process.

The Manifestation Determination Review

The Manifestation Determination Review (MDR) is a meeting of the IEP team, including the parents, that has to occur within 10 school days of the decision to change the placement.⁴ The team reviews the IEP, teacher observations, evaluation results, and anything the parents bring.

Two questions drive the meeting. Was the behavior caused by, or directly and substantially related to, the student’s disability? A student with ADHD who has an impulsive outburst, for example, may have behavior directly tied to their disability. And was the behavior a direct result of the school failing to implement the IEP? If required supports, services, or accommodations weren’t being delivered, the resulting behavior may sit with the school rather than the student.⁴ A “yes” to either question means the behavior is a manifestation of the disability.

If the Behavior Is a Manifestation

When the team finds a connection, the school generally can’t proceed with a long-term suspension or expulsion. The student returns to the placement they were removed from, unless parents and school agree to a change as part of revising the behavior plan. The school also has to conduct a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA), or review the existing one, and then develop or update a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) that addresses the root cause of the behavior.⁴ An FBA that just restates the offense without analyzing why it happened doesn’t meet the standard, and a BIP that amounts to “don’t do that again” isn’t a real plan.

If the Behavior Is Not a Manifestation

If the team concludes the behavior wasn’t related to the disability, the school can apply the same discipline it would use for any other student, including long-term suspension or expulsion. One critical difference remains: the school still has to provide educational services. A student with an IEP never loses the right to a free appropriate public education, even during a long removal.³ Services must be enough to keep the student participating in the general curriculum and progressing on IEP goals, even if the setting looks different from a regular classroom.

The 45-Day Rule for Weapons, Drugs, and Serious Injury

Three categories of serious misconduct let a school move a student to an Interim Alternative Educational Setting (IAES) for up to 45 school days, regardless of whether the behavior turns out to be a manifestation of the disability:⁵

Carrying or possessing a weapon at school or a school function. IDEA uses the definition in 18 U.S.C. § 930, which covers instruments capable of causing death or serious bodily injury and excludes pocket knives with blades under 2.5 inches.⁶
Knowingly possessing or using illegal drugs, or selling or soliciting the sale of a controlled substance, at school or a school function. Legally prescribed medications are excluded.⁶
Inflicting serious bodily injury on another person at school. The definition, borrowed from 18 U.S.C. § 1365, requires a substantial risk of death, extreme physical pain, obvious and lasting disfigurement, or extended loss of function of a body part or organ. A schoolyard fight that results in a bruise or bloody nose typically doesn’t meet this threshold.⁷

The IEP team, not the principal alone, picks the alternative setting, and that setting has to allow the student to keep working on IEP goals and receive services aimed at the behavior. The school still runs an MDR, and if the behavior is found to be a manifestation, still conducts an FBA and develops or revises a BIP. What changes is that the student stays in the alternative setting for up to 45 school days regardless of the MDR outcome.⁵

Students Not Yet Found Eligible for Special Education

A student who doesn’t yet have an IEP can still get IDEA’s discipline protections if the school had a “basis of knowledge” that the child had a disability before the incident. That basis exists in three situations: a parent expressed written concern to school staff that the child needs special education, a parent requested a formal evaluation, or a teacher raised specific concerns about the child’s behavior pattern to a supervisor or the special education director.⁸

When any of those things happened before the behavior, the student gets the same protections as a student with an IEP, including an MDR and limits on removal. The school isn’t deemed to have knowledge if the parent had previously refused an evaluation or declined services, or if the child was evaluated and found ineligible. If a parent requests an evaluation while the student is already suspended or expelled, the school has to conduct it on an expedited timeline, though the student stays in whatever setting the school assigned until the evaluation is complete.⁹

How to Challenge a Suspension or Placement

Parents who disagree with a manifestation determination or a placement decision can request an expedited due process hearing. Schools can also request one if they believe the student’s current placement is substantially likely to cause injury to the student or others.¹⁰ These hearings move faster than typical special education disputes: the hearing occurs within 20 school days of the complaint, and the officer issues a decision within 10 school days after the hearing.¹¹

While an appeal is pending, the student stays in the alternative setting until the officer rules or the removal period ends, whichever comes first, unless the parents and school agree otherwise.¹² That’s a departure from IDEA’s usual “stay-put” rule, which normally keeps the student in their last agreed-upon placement during a dispute. Mediation is also available as a free, voluntary alternative and can’t be used by the school to delay or block a hearing.

A hearing officer can order the student returned to the original placement or, if the evidence shows a genuine safety risk, order an alternative placement for up to 45 school days.¹⁰ Decisions can be appealed further in court.

1
Center for Parent Information and Resources. IDEA’s Regulations on Discipline
2
eCFR. 34 CFR 300.536 – Change of Placement Because of Disciplinary Removals
3
U.S. Department of Education. Sec. 300.530 (d) – Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
4
U.S. Department of Education. Section 1415 (k)(1) – Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
5
U.S. Department of Education. IDEA – Questions and Answers on Discipline Procedures
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 1415 – Procedural Safeguards
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1365 – Tampering with Consumer Products
8
U.S. Department of Education. Section 1415 (k) – Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
9
U.S. Department of Education. Sec. 300.534 – Protections for Children Not Determined Eligible for Special Education and Related Services
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 U.S. Code 1415 – Procedural Safeguards
11
eCFR. 34 CFR 300.532 – Appeal
12
U.S. Department of Education. Section 1415 (k)(4) – Individuals with Disabilities Education Act