II

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2517

To amend the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the GunFree Schools Act of 1994 to allow school personnel to apply appropriate

discipline measures to all students in cases involving weapons, illegal

drugs, and assaults upon teachers, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 8, 2000

Mr. ASHCROFT introduced the following bill; which was read twice and

referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

A BILL

To amend the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

and the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 to allow school

personnel to apply appropriate discipline measures to

all students in cases involving weapons, illegal drugs,

and assaults upon teachers, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘School Safety Act of

5 2000’’.
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1 SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABIL2 ITIES EDUCATION ACT.

3 (a) PROCEDURAL SAFEGUARDS.— Section 615 of the

4 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C.

5 1415) is amended by adding at the end the following:

6 ‘‘(n) DISCIPLINE BY LOCAL AUTHORITY WITH RE7 SPECT TO WEAPONS, DRUGS, AND TEACHER AS8 SAULTS.—

9 ‘‘(1) AUTHORITY OF SCHOOL PERSONNEL WITH

10 RESPECT TO WEAPONS, DRUGS, AND TEACHER AS11 SAULTS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of

12 this title, school personnel may discipline (including

13 expel or suspend) a child with a disability in the

14 same manner in which such personnel may discipline

15 a child without a disability if the child with a

16 disability—

17 ‘‘(A) carries or possesses a weapon to or at

18 a school, on school premises, or to or at a

19 school function under the jurisdiction of a State

20 or a local educational agency;

21 ‘‘(B) threatens to carry, possess, or use a

22 weapon to or at a school, on school premises, or

23 to or at a school function under the jurisdiction

24 of a State or a local educational agency;

25 ‘‘(C) possesses or uses illegal drugs or sells

26 or solicits the sale of a controlled substance
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1 while at school, on school premises, or at a

2 school function under the jurisdiction of a State

3 or local educational agency; or

4 ‘‘(D) assaults or threatens to assault a

5 teacher, teacher’s aide, principal, school coun6 selor, or other school personnel, including inde7 pendent contractors and volunteers.

8 ‘‘(2) INDIVIDUAL DETERMINATIONS.—In car9 rying out any disciplinary action described in para10 graph (1), school personnel have discretion to con11 sider all germane factors in each individual case and

12 modify any disciplinary action on a case-by-case

13 basis.

14 ‘‘(3) DEFENSE.—Nothing in paragraph (1)

15 shall be construed to prevent a child with a disability

16 who is disciplined pursuant to the authority provided

17 under paragraph (1) from asserting a defense that

18 the alleged act was unintentional or innocent.

19 ‘‘(4) FREE APPROPRIATE PUBLIC EDU20 CATION.—

21 ‘‘(A) CEASING TO PROVIDE EDUCATION.—

22 Notwithstanding section 612(a)(1)(A), or any

23 other provision of this title, a child expelled or

24 suspended under paragraph (1) shall not be en25 titled to continued educational services, includ-
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1 ing a free appropriate public education, under

2 this subsection, during the term of such expul3 sion or suspension, if the State in which the

4 local educational agency responsible for pro5 viding educational services to such child does

6 not require a child without a disability to re7 ceive educational services after being expelled or

8 suspended.

9 ‘‘(B) PROVIDING EDUCATION.—Notwith10 standing subparagraph (A), the local edu11 cational agency responsible for providing edu12 cational services to a child with a disability who

13 is expelled or suspended under paragraph (1)

14 may choose to continue to provide educational

15 services to such child. If the local educational

16 agency so chooses to continue to provide the

17 services—

18 ‘‘(i) nothing in this subsection shall be

19 construed to require the local educational

20 agency to provide such child with a free

21 appropriate public education, or any par22 ticular level of service; and

23 ‘‘(ii) the location where the local edu24 cational agency provides the services shall
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1 be left to the discretion of the local edu2 cational agency.

3 ‘‘(5) RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER REQUIRE4 MENTS.—

5 ‘‘(A) PLAN REQUIREMENTS.—No agency

6 shall be considered to be in violation of section

7 612 or 613 because the agency has provided

8 discipline, services, or assistance in accordance

9 with this subsection.

10 ‘‘(B) PROCEDURE.—None of the proce11 dural safeguards or disciplinary procedures of

12 this Act shall apply to this subsection, and the

13 relevant procedural safeguards and disciplinary

14 procedures applicable to children without dis15 abilities may be applied to the child with a dis16 ability in the same manner in which such safe17 guards and procedures would be applied to chil18 dren without disabilities.

19 ‘‘(6) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection:

20 ‘‘(A) THREATEN TO CARRY, POSSESS, OR

21 USE A WEAPON.—The term ‘threaten to carry,

22 possess, or use a weapon’ includes behavior in

23 which a child verbally threatens to kill another

24 person.
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1 ‘‘(B) WEAPON, ILLEGAL DRUG, CON2 TROLLED SUBSTANCE, AND ASSAULT.—The

3 terms ‘weapon’, ‘illegal drug’, ‘controlled sub4 stance’, ‘assault’, ‘unintentional’, and ‘innocent’

5 have the meanings given such terms under

6 State law.’’.

7 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 615 of the

8 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C.

9 1415) is amended—

10 (1) in subsection (f)(1), by striking ‘‘Whenever’’

11 and inserting the following: ‘‘Except as provided in

12 section 615(n), whenever’’; and

13 (2) in subsection (k)—

14 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking subpara15 graph (A) and inserting the following:

16 ‘‘(A) In any disciplinary situation except for

17 such situations as described in subsection (n), school

18 personnel under this section may order a change in

19 the placement of a child with a disability to an ap20 propriate interim alternative educational setting, an21 other setting, or suspension, for not more than 10

22 school days (to the extent such alternatives would

23 apply to children without disabilities).’’;

24 (B) by striking paragraph (3) and insert25 ing the following:
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1 ‘‘(3) Any interim alternative educational setting in

2 which a child is placed under paragraph (1) or (2) shall—

3 ‘‘(A) be selected so as to enable the child to

4 continue to participate in the general curriculum, al5 though in another setting, and to continue to receive

6 those services and modifications, including those de7 scribed in the child’s current IEP, that will enable

8 the child to meet the goals set out in that IEP; and

9 ‘‘(B) include services and modifications de10 signed to address the behavior described in para11 graphs (1) or (2) so that it does not recur.’’;

12 (C) in paragraph (6)(B)—

13 (i) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘(i) In re14 viewing’’ and inserting ‘‘In reviewing’’; and

15 (ii) by striking clause (ii);

16 (D) in paragraph (7)—

17 (i) in subparagraph (A), by striking

18 ‘‘paragraph (1)(A)(ii) or’’ each place it ap19 pears; and

20 (ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking

21 ‘‘paragraph (1)(A)(ii) or’’; and

22 (E) by striking paragraph (10) and insert23 ing the following:
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1 ‘‘(10) SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.—The term ‘substan2 tial evidence’ means beyond a preponderance of the evi3 dence.’’.

4 SEC. 3. AMENDMENT TO THE GUN-FREE SCHOOLS ACT OF

5 1994.

6 Subsection (c) of section 14601 of the Gun-Free

7 Schools Act of 1994 (20 U.S.C. 8921) is amended to read

8 as follows:

9 ‘‘(c) SPECIAL RULE.—Notwithstanding any other

10 provision of this section, this section shall be subject to

11 section 615(n) of the Individuals with Disabilities Edu12 cation Act (20 U.S.C. 1415(n)).’’.

13 SEC. 4. APPLICATION.

14 The amendments made by sections 2 and 3 shall not

15 apply to conduct occurring prior to the date of enactment

16 of this Act.

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