Conducting Legally Sound ARD
Meetings
Members of the ARD Committee
 Administrator
 The child’s teacher
 One or both parents
 The child where appropriate
 The Diagnostician (when
assessment is discussed) or
Speech Path if speech only
ARD
 Other individuals may be
invited by the parent or the
school, but are not members
of the ARD Committee.
Attorneys at ARDs
 When a parent brings an attorney without notice, the school
district may postpone the ARD meeting until their attorney
can be present.
Tape
Recorders
 A parent has a right to tape record the ARD meeting
 If the parent records the meeting, the school district should
tape record as well
 If recorded, make a note in the ARD minutes that the
meeting was recorded.
Chairing the ARD Meeting
 The Chairman of the ARD
is the Administrator
 Be sure to use the prepared
ARD agenda
 Make sure everyone at the
ARD has a copy of the
agenda
 Do not stray from the
agenda
Time Limitations
 Reasonable time limitations
can be made – include in
Notice of ARD
 If an ARD meeting is
lasting longer than
anticipated, the ARD
committee can adjourn and
reconvene at a later date
 The date and time for
reconvening should be set
before adjourning the ARD
Purpose of the ARD
 Should be clearly stated and documented
Initial
Annual
Manifestation Determination
Brief ARD
Parental Issues
 A parent can raise issues at an ARD meeting without giving
prior notice
 The ARD committee does not have to take action on those
issues at the time, but must allow the parent to raise the
issues.
 Methodology is left to the expertise of the school personnel.
Eligibility
Child centered process
Appropriately identify students with disabilities
Eligibility = Disability + Educational Need
2004 IDEA Regulations 34CFR 300.101(c)
FAPE must be available to students who need special education
and related services even though the child has not failed or been
retained in a course or grade, and is advancing from grade to grade.
Educational Need
 Grades don’t tell the whole
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story
Look at patterns of
achievement over time
Look at behavior and
disciplinary action
Look at emotional
functioning
Educational need is a
committee decision
Development of the IEP
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Review progress
ID strengths/weaknesses
Parent concerns
Postsecondary desired outcomes
Review need for ESY
Consider any special factors – health, medical, behavior,
language, communication, AT, etc.
• Complete supplements unique to specific
disabilities/needs
Development of the IEP
Develop goals and objectives to reflect deficit
grade level TEKS – link to needs identified on
the PLAAFP
– Skill deficits should be addressed in order for the
student to access their assigned grade level
curriculum
– Challenge for IEP teams is to develop goals that are
aligned to content standards yet are individualized
for that student
Accommodations
•Accommodations should be unique to the individual
student needs and enable the student to access and
progress in the general curriculum
•Accommodations are the actual teaching supports and
services that the student may require to successfully
demonstrate learning
•Supplemental aids may be specified if they are
required to be utilized by the student and not just good
teaching practice.
The AT Supplement is put in place for any student with
identified AT needs
Modifications/Accommodations
 Modifications refer to changes made to curriculum
expectations in order to meet the needs of the student
-Made when the expectations are beyond the student’s level of
ability
-May be minimal or complex depending on the student’s performance
-Must be clearly acknowledged in the IEP
 Accommodations refer to the actual teaching supports
and services that the student requires to successfully
demonstrate learning
-Does not change expectations to the grade level curriculum
Placement
•Evaluation
information
must drive
programming
decisions
•Consideration
of the child’s
need for
specially
designed
instruction must
drive placement.
Least Restrictive Environment
 Whenever the placement is other than the student’s regular
classroom, the ARD Committee must justify the more
restrictive placement
 Set forth what supplementary aids and services have been
attempted in the less restrictive setting and why the student
needs a more restrictive placement
Least Restrictive Environment
 Set forth what efforts will be made to transition the student
back to the less restrictive environment
 IEP demonstrates positive benefits both academically and non
academically.
(Educational benefit is reasonable progress, not A’s and B’s)
Refusal to Sign
 If a parent refuses to sign the ARD report, make a notation of
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the refusal and initial it
If consensus is not reached, offer the parent the opportunity
to reconvene the ARD meeting within 10 days
The parent has the right to decline the 10 days
The minutes should reflect that the offer was made
Parents should be encouraged to write a statement regarding
their reasons for disagreement.
Non-consensus ARDs
 All members are asked to sign the signature page
beginning with the parent.
 If the parent disagrees the minutes must clearly reflect what
their disagreement is and what steps were taken to resolve the
disagreement.
 If the parent disagrees a 10 school day recess must be offered to
the parent – during this recess the school and parent are to
gather new information and/or review the ARD decision.
 Placement cannot take effect on any disputed ARD decision
until the 10th school day following the reconvention ARD
meeting.
Prior Written Notice
 In addition to signing the ARD signature page the parents
must agree to waive the 5 school days waiting period or plan
cannot be implemented.
 If parent is in attendance there is a place on the ARD
signature page for them to waive their 5 days.
 If parent is not in attendance the ARD packet along with the
Prior Written Notice statement and a letter are sent to the
parent with the effective date for implementation of the IEP
unless the parent returns the letter signed before the
effective date
ARD Minutes/Deliberations
 Deliberations should
clearly reflect the decisions
made by the ARD
Committee but are not a
verbatim transcript of the
meeting.
 Deliberations should
reflect all parent concerns
and district’s response to
those concerns and/or
questions.
Handling Belligerent Parents
 The ARD Committee
should allow a parent to
“let off steam;” however,
should the parent become
abusive, take a break to
give the parent an
opportunity to regain
composure
 If the parent remains
abusive, adjourn the ARD
meeting to another time
Handling Belligerent Parents
 Never respond to a parent’s
frustration with a personal
attack
 Maintain professionalism
 Give the meeting the attention it deserves—if you are taking
calls or leaving the meeting to take care of other business,
you are sending a clear message to the parent about how
important their child is
 Don’t use jargon and don’t let your staff use jargon
 Don’t allow committee members to engage in side
conversations
 Teach the Golden Rule—Don’t come to the ARD with
recommendations you have not discussed with the other staff
members involved.
 If something unexpected happens and the committee isn’t
prepared to make a decision, document areas where you have
reached agreement and agree to recess in order to gather
more information.
And More Tips
Stay out of issues that are not ARD/IEP issues.
 Personnel
 In District transfers
 Promotion/retention (unless SSI Committee)
 Assessment Battery
 Curriculum and Instructional Materials
 Parent/Teacher conferences
 District and Campus policies and procedures
 Other students
Statements you should never make in
an ARD
 He is lazy and he just uses these accommodations as a crutch
 You could come back and sue us if we did that
 We could never afford that
 It’s not fair to the other students
 I don’t believe in modifying. If he is in my class he should do
what everyone else has to do
 Advocates and Attorneys don’t scare me…….
Things you can say
 Why do you believe John needs……?
 It sounds like you are concerned about………, (re-state the
problem) how could we address that most effectively? (Keep
everyone in dialogue until a suggestion is made that everyone
can live with.)
 I think it would be more practical to…….
 We want John to be as independent as possible, so what
about…..
 It’s important that she be exposed to as much of the regular
curriculum as possible, so what if we…..
Things you can say
 What is your goal for your child after high school? Will
…………..move him toward that goal?
 What would be the best way to handle this in your
classroom?
 He has trouble finding the motivation to complete his work
and doesn’t always put forth the effort needed to be
successful even when he seems to have the skills in place to
complete the assignment
Notes:
 Stay positive
 Don’t take things personally
 Be honest and
straightforward but….
 Phrase things in a respectful
and polite way
 Be a leader for your
campus…your attitude about
the student and family will
influence the attitudes of
your staff
Issues Related to Discipline
Essential Questions
1. How do discipline decisions impact district rankings on the
SPP (State Performance Plan) and PBMAS (Performance
Based Monitoring Analysis System)?
2. When does a campus conduct an MDR (Manifestation
Determination Review)?
3. What is the purpose of the MDR ?
4. Are there special considerations that need to be considered
when making disciplinary decisions for students with special
needs?
SPP: State Performance Plan
 Information is gathered by TEA to report to the U.S. Dept.
of Education (OSEP)
 Monitoring Priority for State Performance Plan: FAPE in
LRE
 SPP reports information on eight indicators
 Indicator #4: “Percent of districts identified by the State as
having a significant discrepancy in the rates of suspensions
and expulsions greater than 10 days in a school year”.
PBMAS: Performance Based Monitoring
Analysis System
 This system is used by TEA to evaluate the performance and
program effectiveness of school districts and charter schools
 PBMAS reports data based on 18 indicators
 Indicators 16, 17, and 18 address discretionary placements in
DAEP, ISS, and OSS
PBMAS continued
 For each district, the difference score is compared to the
PBMAS standards for the indicator, and performance
standards are assigned as Performance Level 0, 1, 2 and 3
 Performance Level 0 indicates that standards have been met,
Performance Level 3 indicates that the district percent of
discretionary placements are at least 6.1% higher than the
percent of overall discretionary placements within the
district
PBMAS Performance Level
Consequences
 Level 1:
 Level 2:
 Level 3:
Corrective action plan
Financial Impact (15% of funds)
TEA monitor
When to conduct an MDR
 When a student has been removed from his educational placement for 10 days
(cumulative)
 Remember:
 Portions of a school day that a child has been suspended would be counted as
one day
 ISS would not be considered out of placement as long as the child is afforded
the opportunity to:
 Appropriately progress in the general education curriculum
 Continue to receive the services specified on the IEP(the ISS teacher must
implement and provided instruction on student’s specific goals and
objectives)
 Continue to participate with nondisabled peers to the extent they would
have in their current placement
Counting Caution
 Evaluate this very cautiously-attorneys advise you to count all
ISS days as out of placement
 If an ISS day is not counted as out of placement, make sure
the contact teacher has documented all services as well as
service delivery times
 Be sure COP monitor includes bus suspensions in ‘FAPE
Free’ count
Change of placement occurs when:
 The removal is for more than 10 consecutive days or
 The student is subject to a series of removals that constitute
a pattern that
 Totals more than 10 school days in a year
 Shows the child’s behavior that is subject to discipline is similar
to previous behaviors that resulted in a series of removals, taken
cumulatively, and determined to have been a manifestation of
the child’s disability
 Considers additional factors such as the length of each removal,
the total amount of time the child has been removed, and the
proximity of the removals to one another (CFR 300.536)
When change of placement occurs:
 Administrator must notify parent and provide the parent a
copy of the Procedural Safeguards.
 Administrator must notify Assessment Specialist that the a
change of placement has occurred and schedule a MDR ARD
meeting.
 After initial MDR Administrator may use Short-term
Removal form to determine if another MDR is necessary for
each subsequent day out of placement or change in
placement.
Mandatory MDR:
 When a change of placement
occurs
 Possession or use of drugs at
school
 Possession of weapons at
school
 Infliction of serious bodily
injury
 An MDR must be scheduled
within 10 school days of the
decision to change placement
as a result of violation of the
Student Code of Conduct
 Not later than the date on
which the decision to take the
disciplinary action is made
requiring an MDR, school
personnel must notify the
parent of the decision and
provide them a copy of the
Procedural Safeguards
MDR does not reset the clock!
 A student may only have 10 cumulative days out of placement
in a school year.
 Each subsequent day is in addition to the first 10.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Each year begins with 0 days out of placement.
 Count begins on first day out of placement in a school year.
Purpose of the MDR is the determine the
answer to the following questions
 The ARDC must determine :
 1. Was the conduct in question caused by, or did it have a
direct and substantial relationship to the child’s disability?
or
 2. Was the conduct in question the direct result of the districts
failure to implement the IEP?
MDR Question # 1
Caused by or direct and substantial relationship
 Has the student followed the rules in the school in the past?
 In what situations can student control behavior?
 Are there other factors to explain the misconduct?
 Is this an isolated instance of this behavior or is it recurrent?
 Was the behavior premeditated?
MDR Question # 2
Direct result of failure to implement IEP
 Is the student making progress?
 Have the services been provided consistent with the IEP?
 If there were inconsistencies in the implementation in the
IEP, did they have a direct impact on the behavior in
question?
When Behavior is a Manifestation
 If the answer to either question is a “yes”, the conduct is a
manifestation of the child’s disability.
 The ARDC must:
 Conduct a FBA and implement a BIP
 If BIP exists, review BIP and modify as necessary to address
behavior; and
 Return the child to their current placement (unless parent and
district agree to change of placement as part of a BIP
modifications and unless mandatory 45-day removal applies
When behavior is Not a Manifestation
 Apply relevant disciplinary procedures same as for children
without disabilities
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Sec. 300.530, Authority of school personnel (a)
Case by-case determination. School personnel may
consider any unique circumstances on a case-by case
basis when determining whether a change in
placement is appropriate for a child with a disability
who violates a code of student conduct.
Questions?