On February 11th the state Senate passed AB 614, which had already passed the state Assembly. The bill will now advance to the Governor, who will decide whether to veto or sign the bill into law. BPDD releases the following statement about the bill.
Students with disabilities are already removed from class more often than non-disabled peers
Wisconsin law already gives schools broad authority to remove students from classrooms, suspend, and expel students.
Many parents of students with disabilities say students are sent home, removed from classrooms, or suspended more often than is necessary already, and Wisconsin incident data reported by schools shows students with disabilities are disproportionately represented in disciplinary actions. Students with disabilities already make up 24% of all suspensions and 25% of reported incidents.
Many common behaviors could fit the definition of disruptive incident
Under the bill, the definition of “disruptive incident” is broad and gives a lot of room for the teacher to fit many behaviors into the definition, including behaviors that students with disabilities are using as communication or as calming strategies.
Requiring paperwork adds barriers and delay to students returning to class
The bill would require a behavior plans as a pre-requisite for students being allowed back into the classroom. Behavioral plans take time to write. There are no provisions in the bill that specify when a required behavior plan must be completed to ensure that a student can return to class as soon as possible.
For students who do not have a disability or are undiagnosed, it appears the student could be removed from class indefinitely if the behavior plan has not been completed.
For students with disabilities who have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), under the bill, in order for the student not to be removed from the classroom the IEP would have to list any possible disruptive behavior that could be attributed to the child’s disability and state that an expression of those specific behaviors is not an allowable reason to exclude the student from class.
IEPs are living documents that are supposed to be responsive to the changing needs of the child. It is not a predictive document. Children’s behavior changes over time, as does the IEP. Children may stop doing behaviors they have done in the past; they may do new behaviors they have not done before. It is neither realistic nor prudent to list all possible behaviors in an IEP.
