School discipline bills spark worry that kids with disabilities may be suspended instead of supported

Feb. 26—As lawmakers advance bills to make it easier for teachers to suspend students who act out, advocates worry the legislation will make it easier to kick kids out of class when they're only displaying symptoms of disabilities.

Kids with autism may be more likely to throw temper tantrums because they have more problems controlling their impulses. Children struggling to complete classwork because of ADHD can become angry because of poor self-esteem.

That's why Christy Black, advocacy specialist at the West Virginia Developmental Disabilities Council, said teachers will be more likely to send home kids with disabilities.

"They should be looking for the root of the problem, rather than just suspending them," she said.

There are two bills moving through the chambers addressing school discipline this year: SB 614, sponsored by Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, aims to improve school safety by making it easier for teachers to suspend elementary school kids who act violent or threatening and send them to alternate learning settings, if they exist. A similar bill passed last year, making it easier for teachers to suspend high school and middle school students. HB 4776 isn't limited to violent or threatening behavior; it also includes kids who are unruly or disruptive. Both bills have passed through their respective chambers.

Both require schools to evaluate if kids have disabilities.

But under federal disability law, schools are already supposed to monitor student behavior for signs of disabilities and conduct evaluations before suspensions and aren't doing it, according to Holly Sheldon, a senior advocate with Disability Rights of West Virginia. She predicted that the potential legislation would only make the problem worse.

"If they get antsy, or if they have an outburst because they're overstimulated, is that going to be considered disruptive, when in reality they just need a support?" she said. "Do they need someone with them to encourage them to stay on task? Or do they need a smaller setting?"

Grady said after last year's bill became law, teachers began suspending students with disabilities and ignoring those children's Individualized Education Programs, also known as IEPs, which outline ways that school staff should react when students with disabilities disrupt classrooms.

She expects the provisions in her bill to keep that from happening in the future.

Disability rights advocates, though, say school officials and lawmakers need to do more — they said that better training and pay raises for special education teachers and aides will make it more likely that staff will be able to follow IEP plans.

Grady said she also believes raises to recruit more special education teachers and aides would improve instruction for students. But she said that due to budget restraints, lawmakers will likely pass a state employee and teacher pay raise this year but have to wait until next year to give a more significant raise to special education aides and teachers.

"They need an incentive of some kind, saying, 'we value you, we appreciate you, you work with our most vulnerable kids,'" she said.

House Education Committee Chair Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, acknowledged that it was "possible" for a student with a disability to be affected by the bill, but he and Del. Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, the bill's lead sponsor, said they believe the bill provides enough protection.

"If they're not diagnosed, then there probably isn't a problem," Gearheart said. "And when it is diagnosed, then it becomes part of the protected class."

But Blaire Malkin, a parent of a child with a disability and an attorney at Mountain State Justice who has expertise in special education law, noted that diagnosing a disability and learning how to help kids who have them takes time. She had to quit work when her daughter Della was 2 and a half years old in order to figure out her daughter's medical needs, so she worries that the youngest kids will be most harmed.

"It completely changes their self concept, especially for the youngest kids who might feel like the trusted adults in their life have given up on them already, because they had one bad day where they threw a fit." she said. "And all of a sudden, they're painted as a bad kid who can't come to school and learn."

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