Chalk Talks - Deprivation of Education in Violation of Procedural Due Process: The Wrong Turn in Couture

I. INTRODUCTION A student has rights under the Fourteenth Amendment while in school.1 The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits any State from depriving "any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law. "2 To prove that there has been a violation of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment two things must be established.3 First, the individual must be shown to have a protected liberty or property interest, such that due process protections were applicable. Second, it must be proven that the individual was not provided the correct and appropriate level of due process.4 Procedural due process is the "minimal requirements of notice and a hearing guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the . 14th Amendment, especially if the deprivation of . liberty or property interest may occur . "5 A student who is facing a deprivation of liberty or property is entitled to "some kind of notice and afforded some kind of hearing. "6 A student has a protected property interest in public education and, as such, has procedural due process protections within the education process.7 Thus, when a state establishes a right to education, students have a protected property interest in their public education.8 When a student is totally deprived of an education without a hearing, there may be a violation of that student's procedural due process protections under the Fourteenth Amendment.9 However, this is only true when the right has been established under state law.10 A total deprivation of education is "the total exclusion from the education process for more than a trivial period. "" The Court has stated that "education is perhaps the most important function of state and local government"12 and so a total deprivation of education "is a serious event in the life of the . child. "13 One way a student can be deprived of an education is when a student is disciplined by being removed from the classroom for prolonged periods of time.14 In Couture, a student's mother argued that a teacher's use of timeouts excluded the student from the classroom and thus, deprived the student of an education without a hearing, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.15 The timeouts were a form of discipline that were approved as part of the student's Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP) under the student's Individual Educational Plan (IEP). 16 Notwithstanding their allowance, if the court found the manner in which the timeouts were imposed constituted a total deprivation of education, the student was entitled to due process.17 This Note will analyze Couture and discuss why the timeouts were enough to violate the student's procedural due process rights despite the Tenth Circuit's holding. The court held the discipline was not a deprivation because it was part of the student's IEP and the teacher would have been unduly burdened by having to evaluate the effectiveness of the discipline as she was implementing it.18 II. EXPLANATION AND ANALYSIS A. Procedural Due Process Protections in School Environment Parents and guardians are required by Pennsylvania state law to ensure that their children attend school. " This is a compulsory attendance law forcing parents to "ensure that their children attend an approved educational institution . "20 As a result, certain rights and liberties are guaranteed for students and parents within the educational system.21 Thus, "[t]he authority possessed by the State to prescribe and enforce standards of conduct in its schools . must be exercised consistently with constitutional safeguards. "22 This means that there are some procedural due process protections in public schools. B. When Discipline Constitutes a Total Deprivation of Education For the timeouts in Couture to violate the student's procedural due process rights, all that was required was a finding, by the Court, of a total deprivation of education since there was no notice or hearing for the student. …