Students with disabilities may be suspended and/or expelled as long as the procedural safeguards required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act are followed. District personnel shall evaluate the misconduct of students receiving services under IDEA or Section 504 to determine whether the misconduct is a manifestation of a disability.
The term “disability” is defined in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act as pertaining to a person evaluated according to required procedures who (i) has a physical or mental impairment, which substantially limits one or more major life activities, (ii) has a record of such an impairment, or (iii) is regarded as having such an impairment, with items (ii) and (iii) pertaining mainly to employment and entrance into post-secondary education. Under Section 504, “major life activities” means functions such as caring for one's self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. Students with disabilities under IDEA means those children evaluated in accordance with required procedures as having mental retardation, hearing impairments including deafness, speech or language impairments, visual impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, specific learning disabilities, deaf-blindness, or multiple disabilities, and who, because of those impairments, need special education and related services. The term includes children with disabilities ages 3 through 5 who meet eligibility criteria for one or more of the foregoing impairments under IDEA, expect specific learning disabilities, or who are experiencing developmental delay in one or more of the following areas: physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, or adaptive development, and who, for that reason, need special education and related services. (3-26-02)