Legal, Ethical, and Professional Practices
What this domain tests
The discipline provisions of IDEA, manifestation determination, interim alternative educational settings, restraint and seclusion limits, and the ethical standards that govern your conduct.
Discipline framework
- Removals up to 10 cumulative school days in a year are treated like those for nondisabled peers, though services continue as needed for progress on goals and access to the general curriculum.
- Beyond 10 days, or when removals form a pattern (similarity of behavior, length, proximity, total time), the change of placement requires services plus a manifestation determination within 10 school days of the decision.
- Two questions: was the conduct caused by, or did it have a direct and substantial relationship to, the disability? Was it the direct result of the district's failure to implement the IEP?
- If either is yes, it is a manifestation: conduct an FBA, revise the BIP, and return to the prior placement unless the team agrees otherwise. Manifestation status is not immunity from ordinary consequences.
- Interim alternative educational setting for up to 45 school days is available for weapons, illegal drugs, or serious bodily injury, and by hearing officer order when substantial likelihood of injury exists. Honig v. Doe bars indefinite exclusion for disability-related conduct.
- Stay-put applies during due process unless the parties or a hearing officer agree otherwise.
Ethics and high-risk procedures
Restraint and seclusion are not authorized by IDEA; state law governs, and neither may be used as punishment, for staff convenience, or as a substitute for instruction. Prone restraint is universally contraindicated. Report suspected abuse under mandatory reporting law and document incidents factually.
Worked example
A student with ED brings a knife to school. The district may place him in an IAES for up to 45 school days regardless of manifestation, but must still convene the manifestation determination within 10 school days and continue FAPE in the IAES.
Traps that cost marks
- Answering that manifestation means no consequences.
- Counting only consecutive days rather than cumulative days and patterns.
- Treating seclusion as a legal consequence rather than a restricted, reportable emergency measure.