The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act places some restrictions on how many times a student can be suspended before a school is required to hold an IEP team meeting. Suspensions of ten cumulative school days in a year are considered a change of educational placement that requires a meeting of your child's IEPteam to perform specific tasks.
But what about in-school suspension? Do days your child spends in in-school suspension count toward the ten day limit? As with most special education issues, the answer is a definite maybe. Generally, schools must ensure that students in in-school suspension must continue to receive general education instruction that they would receive were they not in the suspension. They must also receive special education services included on their IEPs.
If schools ensure those services are provided in the in-school suspension environment and that the environment is comparable to facilities used by other students, the schools will have met their obligations under the law, and the ten days do not count toward the ten day rule. Otherwise, if services are not provided, the suspension days do count toward the 10 day rule.
