Why Johnny Can’t Stay In School

Under the guise of leaving no child behind, Congress quietly passed two Education Bill amendments this summer that would leave more minority and disabled kids without services -- and deny families legal recourse.

Following the zero-tolerance trend in discipline, these measures allow schools to kick out disabled students without providing at-home services and immunize teachers and school officials against civil lawsuits by affected families. The Senate-House conference committee will take up the amendments when Congress returns in September.

Under the existing Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, children with disabilities can't be ejected for longer than 10 days without alternative services. The new measures vary slightly: The House's version allows banishment for weapons, drugs, or aggravated assault or battery, regardless of whether the crime resulted from a disability. The Senate's version continues educating kids who screw up because of their disability, but allows schools to expel students for breaking any rule, including smoking cigarettes.

"A disabled child who is misbehaving is treated in an entirely different way than a child who is not a disabled child," Alabama senator Jeff Sessions told the chamber. "They have extraordinary protections that, in effect, make it difficult for discipline even to occur."

	"Sixty to 65 percent of students, both regular and special ed, who commit "serious misconduct" are suspended; the length of suspensions is about equal, and fewer than half the students receive alternative education during their suspensions."

Wrong all around, says Beth Foley of the Council for Exceptional Children, who authored a letter against the IDEA measures, signed by more than 90 groups ranging from Easter Seals to the National Education Association and the ACLU. Several studies have found that disabled kids are, in fact, banned from school disproportionately. The amendment's detractors point to Kip Kinkel, the Oregon teen who was suspended in 1998, then killed his parents and two classmates. "These kids who are getting expelled aren't going to go home and watch PBS," she says.

The amendment's supporters say dangerous kids are being left in school too long. Sessions uses the case of Lance Landers, called the "meanest kid in Alabama" in news reports. The special-ed student had cursed at school officials, grabbed a school bus steering wheel, and punched his aide--all without being suspended. The local district attorney petitioned a court to expel him two months after the Columbine massacre. Landers ended up spending more than a year away from his family, shuttling between juvenile facilities.

Congress's General Accounting Office says the much touted double standard is a myth, reporting in January that disabled children "are being disciplined in generally a similar manner to regular education students." Sixty to 65 percent of students, both regular and special ed, who commit "serious misconduct" are suspended; the length of suspensions is about equal, and fewer than half the students receive alternative education during their suspensions. Most principals told the GAO that special-ed policies have a positive or neutral effect on school safety; less than a third said the separate policies are unfair.

What's more, zero-tolerance policies appear to provide cover for racial discrimination. "Opportunities Suspended," a study by the Harvard Civil Rights Project and the Advancement Project, shows that of the 87,000 kids expelled in 1998, 31 percent were black, even though African Americans account for only 17 percent of all students. One in four black males was suspended at least once over a four-year period.

In a report titled "The Color of Discipline," Russ Skiba of the Indiana University Institute for Child Study says African Americans are kicked out more often for subjective offenses such as disrespect and noise--and not just because they act out more, or come from poorer homes. They're also overrepresented in special education. The latter may be shielding some from unfair, zero-tolerance discipline. "Why are we in such a hurry to include a whole new set of children in programs and policies that haven't shown any evidence whatsoever of being effective?" Skiba asks.