How Should We Think About Violence from Students with IEPs?
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses the complex question of how to respond when students with disabilities engage in violent behavior.
Key Takeaways
- IEPs don't excuse violence - Students with disabilities still need to be held accountable for violent behavior, though the process differs
- Placement changes aren't punishment - Moving a student to a more appropriate setting is a service adjustment, not a disciplinary action
- Safety applies to everyone - Other students and staff have a right to a safe environment regardless of any student's disability status
Transcript
all right so what do we do about students with ieps who are violent i got a lot of comments about this on my last video and students who have ieps do deserve procedural safeguards they do deserve a free and appropriate public education but they don't deserve the right to be violent to other students so i think you know everybody is operating under the same rules that you don't get to be violent to other people at school and even if you are a student in an ebd program you deserve the right to go to school and not be assaulted by your classmates, even if that is something that you struggle with.
So a lot of what people are saying about the protections that students with IEPs have are not quite right.
If a student with an IEP is suspended for 10 days or more in one school year, there does need to be a manifestation determination meeting where the IEP team discusses, was this behavior a manifestation of the disability?
Does the IEP need to be revised?
Is the placement the least restrictive environment?
Is it appropriate?
So that meeting is not going to be fun, but it's not the end of the world.
So this idea that you can never, ever suspend a student with an IEP, even if they're violent, is just not true.
So whoever's telling you that is not correct.
And please understand, this is not a new problem.
Like we have had the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for what, like 50 years now?
It was 1973.
Let me know if you know the exact year, but this is not a new problem, right?
We've dealt with this for decades and it's never been easy.
but it's always been possible, right?
We have been able to deal with students with IEPs who struggle with violence and not have the kind of problems we're having now.
So I'm convinced that the problems we're having now with violence in schools come from somewhere else, right?
And certainly some students struggle more than others with behavior, but special education is not the cause of these issues.
The cause of these issues is the failure to see that violence is not acceptable.
It's the tolerance of violence, the toleration of violent behavior and the insistence that students never be sent home that is the cause of this.
The other thing that I think we have to be very careful about is the circular reasoning that just writes an IEP for any student who is violent.
I think we're going to regret that.
I think that's not always appropriate.
And certainly some students do need specially designed instruction.
They do need maybe a specific type of placement and service because they struggle with behavior, but it becomes this kind of circular reasoning to say, well, the student is violent.
Therefore they have violence as a disability.
Therefore we can't do anything about it.
Like that's not really what's supposed to happen with EBD.
That's not really...
what the student needs.
They do need services.
They do need an appropriate education, but that doesn't give them carte blanche to be violent, right?
And if you teach in an EBD program, or if you're a para in an EBD program, or a para who works with a student who is violent sometimes, you deserve the right to a safe work environment as well.
Like you're not just signing up to be a punching bag when you take a job like that.
And I think everybody, you know, whether the students in those programs and the staff in those programs deserve to be safe.
So lots of issues here, but let me know what you think.