If you’re facing a manifestation determination for your child, you’re probably asking “what is a manifestation determination?”. Most people have never heard of this procedure and don’t know anything about it.
There are some important things you need to know. And you need to get your bearings quickly, because this is a serious matter and you have a critical role to play in it.
This article will give you a simple explanation of what a manifestation determination is and why you need to be actively involved. It will help you understand what is going on, why, and how your involvement can help your child.
What is a manifestation determination all about?
A manifestation determination is part of the student discipline process for children with disabilities who get in trouble at school. It’s a defense procedure for disabled children who are facing suspension or expulsion, or repeated removals from class for disciplinary reasons.
Even though the manifestation determination is a defense procedure, it has nothing to do with guilt or innocence. It’s about stopping schools from punishing children for being disabled.
A disability can cause problematic behaviors. But children should not be punished for these disability-related behaviors. To do so would amount to punishing them for being disabled. And that would be illegal.
We don’t punish children for being disabled!
So before the school can punish your child for breaking school rules, they have to first determine whether the misbehavior was caused by your child’s disability. If so, they can’t punish your child for it.
That’s what a manifestation determination is all about. That’s the big decision being made at the manifestation determination meeting – whether your child’s misbehavior was caused by their disability.
Your child’s IEP team (including you) and the administrators will have a meeting. At the meeting, this group will consider the misbehavior that occurred and your child’s disabilities, and will look for a causal connection between the two.
This causal connection can be in the form of a logical cause and effect relationship between the disability and the behavior. But it can also be in the form of the misbehavior being caused by the school failing to properly implement the IEP. Under either scenario, if the causal connection is found then the misbehavior is deemed a “manifestation of a disability” and the school cannot punish your child for it.
If they find no causal relationship between the misbehavior and a disability or IEP violation (no “manifestation of a disability”), then the school can punish your child just like any other student. In that case, the disciplinary action against your child can proceed.
In broad strokes, that’s what a manifestation determination is. But that’s not all you need to know.
You have a critical role to play in this process, which is to defend and protect your child. There are things for you to do. And the better you understand manifestation determinations, the more confident and effective you will be in protecting your child.
Don’t be confused by the terminology
Different terminology is used in different districts and in different contexts. This manifestation determination procedure is sometimes called a “manifestation determination hearing”, a “manifestation determination meeting”, a “manifestation determination review”, or even an “MDR”. All those terms are referring to the same procedure.
And don’t be mislead by the term “hearing” that is sometimes used. It is not a hearing in any normal sense of the word. There is no judge, no sworn testimony, no rules of evidence. The manifestation determination is conducted in the form of a meeting. It looks and feels very much like an IEP meeting, but the issues being discussed are different.
This is about keeping your child in school
Your manifestation determination is a serious matter, and the outcome has significant consequences for your child.
A manifestation determination is triggered when the school is considering a long term suspension or expulsion. Losing the manifestation determination could mean your child gets kicked out of school.
The procedure is also used in some cases of chronic misbehavior. If repeated small offenses result in repeated short term suspensions, it adds up to a lot of missed school. If those suspensions total 10 days in a school year, a manifestation determination is required before imposing any additional suspensions.
Either way, the school wants to remove your child – maybe for a long time, maybe even permanently. If you lose the manifestation determination, they can do exactly that. If you win, they can’t proceed with the disciplinary action no matter how much they might want to.
In short, the manifestation determination is about keeping your child in school.
Your critical role in helping your child stay in school
You have a critical role in the manifestation determination process. This is a defense procedure. Your child needs someone to defend them, to advocate for them. That someone is you.
Don’t expect the school personnel to defend your child. They are the ones trying to kick your child out. You need to be at that meeting trying to keep your child in.
You might be wondering just how you are supposed to do that.
Defending your child has two main components.
First, you’ll probably have to help the school to better understand your child. For the people at the meeting to make the right decision, they need to understand your child on a deep level.
Right now, they may not have that level of understanding. This is especially true for administrators, who don’t actually work with your child. You’ll need to fill in the gaps in their knowledge, and correct any misunderstandings or stereotypes they may have about your child.
Second, you defend your child by explaining how your child’s disability caused their misbehavior. To win, you have to get the others at the meeting to agree with you. You’ll have to present a persuasive case based on the facts.
Doing these things effectively requires some preparation and strategy. There are lots of resources on this site to help you with that.
And don’t let the task at hand intimidate you. Although it does take some work, it’s not rocket science. Parents win manifestation determinations all the time. You can to.
The importance of preparing for the meeting
The key to success at the meeting is proper preparation before the meeting. So don’t put it off until the last minute, or walk into the meeting not knowing what you are going to say.
The earlier you start preparing, the better off you will be at the meeting. The more thoroughly you prepare, the more confident and effective you will be in advocating for your child.
“Every battle is won or lost before it is ever fought.”Sun Tzu - The Art of War
You can have a huge impact on the outcome of this situation if you perform your role effectively. Don’t leave it all up to the school to figure out and decide. They don’t know your child as well as you do, and they don’t care about your child as much as you do. Your involvement in this process matters a great deal.
Those are the basics, now dig into the details
The above information is intended to give you a quick “big picture” overview to help you get your bearings and understand what’s going on.
Now you can move on from asking “what is a manifestation determination” to “what exactly am I supposed to do about it?”.
The next step is to delve into some important details.
One of the first decisions you will need to make is whether to hire an attorney or advocate to help you. If you are wondering whether you should hire a lawyer or advocate, or you need help finding one, read Should You Get An Attorney For Your Manifestation Determination?
You’ll also need to figure out what information the school needs to have about your child that they don’t already have, or that they seem to be ignoring. And you may be wondering how to “prove” that your child’s disability caused their misbehavior. Or how to even get the school to listen to what you have to say at the meeting.
This entire site is devoted exclusively to helping parents win their manifestation determinations. Every article here was written with that goal in mind. So take some time and look around. The information you need is probably here.
Conclusion
So what is a manifestation determination?
A manifestation determination is a meeting to determine whether your child’s misbehavior was caused by their disability. The outcome of the meeting dictates whether the school can punish your child or not. Ultimately, it’s about giving you an opportunity to defend your child and keep them in school.
Your role is to defend your child at the meeting by convincing the other participants that your child’s behavior was caused by their disability, or by the school’s violation of the IEP. Proper preparation before the meeting is the key to success, and is a major part of this role.
Now you know the basics of what a manifestation determination is, and what your role is. Some good articles to read next would be:
The Three Most Important Things You Need To Know About Manifestation Determinations Right Up Front
How To Win A Manifestation Determination Hearing
Should You Get An Attorney For Your Manifestation Determination?
If you are interested in reading the federal regulation governing manifestation determinations, you can find it here: 34 CFR 300.530.
Or return to the Home page of Manifestation Determination for Parents.
There’s more to learn, so keep reading. You can do this.
Manifestation determination technicalities and jargon (for those interested in the legalities)
This site is focused on explaining everything in simple terms that are easy to understand. I try to limit the legal babble as much as possible. But I know that some parents want to know the technicalities and legal jargon, so here it is.
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A more technical answer to “What is a manifestation determination?”
Manifestation determinations are governed by the federal special education law known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004). The protections of the manifestation determination procedure are applicable for any special education student who has an IEP. Under some circumstances it could also apply to a student with disabilities who does not yet have an IEP, but where the school has “notice” that they might need an IEP.
The manifestation determination review procedure, sometimes referred to as an MDR, is triggered when a special education student is subject to a disciplinary change of placement (a disruption of the educational services stated in the IEP for purposes of discipline) , and the change of placement will exceed 10 days. This 10 day trigger is met by a single long-term suspension or expulsion that will exceed 10 days in duration. But it is also met in situations where there has been a series of shorter suspensions for the same or similar behaviors (a “pattern of behavior”), and the cumulative total of those shorter suspensions is going to exceed 10 days in a single school year.
The MDR procedure requires a meeting of the “relevant members” of the IEP team. The parent is required to be invited, but is not required to attend. At the meeting, the team decides whether the misbehavior of the student was a “manifestation of a disability”. If so, the school cannot proceed with the proposed disciplinary change of placement. The misbehavior is instead addressed as a special education matter, usually with adjustments to the IEP through the usual IEP meeting process. This may include, but is not limited to, conducting a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) and creating or modifying an individualized Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP).
A misbehavior is considered a “manifestation of a disability” if the misbehavior was “caused by, or had a direct and substantial relationship to, the child’s disability”, or if the misbehavior was “the direct result of the LEA’s failure to implement the IEP”.
The possibility of an “IAES”
Although the school cannot change placement for disciplinary reasons if the misbehavior is found to be a manifestation of a disability, the administration does have an option to impose a temporary Interim Alternative Educational Setting (IAES) under certain specific circumstances based on the nature and seriousness of the misbehavior.
In substance, an IAES is a temporary change of placement that will continue to provide educational services but usually involves a change of location to a more structured or controlled environment for safety reasons.
The specific circumstances under which an IAES may be ordered are where the misbehavior involved bringing a weapon to school, having illegal drugs at school, or causing a serious injury to someone.
Under such circumstances, the administration may (but is not required to) order an IAES even though the misbehavior was a manifestation of a disability. However, the IAES is about protecting the safety of the school environment, not punishing the child. The IAES is limited to a maximum of 45 days (subject to possible renewal for additional 45 day periods) and is subject to appeal/review through a special education due process hearing.
If no “manifestation of a disability” is found
If the MDR team decides that the misbehavior of the student was not a manifestation of a disability, then the student is entitled to no special disciplinary protections and the administration can proceed to impose school disciplinary procedures and consequences as they would for any other non-disabled student. This can include a long-term suspension or expulsion.
However, even if suspended or expelled, a child with an IEP is still entitled to receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), and thus will continue to have an IEP and receive some form of educational services. They will be modified to reflect the reality that the student is no longer in the school environment.
Legal research
You can delve deeper into the legalities of a special education manifestation determination by reading the relevant portions of the IDEA statute and regulations.
Federal statute:
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004) 20 USCS §1415(k)
Federal regulations:
34 CFR 300.530 The key regulation on manifestation determinations
34 CFR 300. 530 – 537 Other regulations related to manifestation determinations, such as IAES rules, appeals, etc. This link takes you to a page listing links to each regulation. Scroll down the page to find the specific regulation you want to read and click on its link.