The guidance reminds school districts and parents/guardians/other education rights holders of the numerous safeguards that the law has established to protect against improper disciplinary removals. It states that when a change of placement occurs because of disciplinary action, the parent/guardian/other education rights holder must be given a prior written notice (PWN) and a copy of the procedural safeguards.^[1] When a school district claims that a pattern of removals is not a change of placement, the parent/guardian/other education rights holder can challenge that decision by filing a noncompliance complaint with the State Department of education under 34 C.F.R. § 300.153, or filing a due process complaint to request an expedited due process hearing under 34 C.F.R. § 300.532(a), or requesting mediation under 34 C.F.R. § 300.506. Noncompliance complaints need not be completed in an expedited timeframe.

The guidance clarifies that hearing officers (also called administrative law judges) in these proceedings under 34 C.F.R. § 300.532(a) are not bound by the specific actions authorized in 34 C.F.R. § 300.532(b)(2) and can and should “order relief that is appropriate to remedy the alleged violations based on the facts and circumstances of each individual complaint.” For instance, a hearing officer may find that “the child did not receive FAPE if a disciplinary removal was improper and adversely impacted the child”, and order the school district to return the child to the placement from which the child was removed and to “provide compensatory services to remedy the impact of the loss of instruction and services on the child’s receipt of FAPE.”

1. 34 C.F.R. §§ 300.503 and 300.504.[↩]