First, amendments to IDEA are not germane to H.R. 1501. IDEA falls under the jurisdiction of the Education and the Workforce Committee and was revised significantly in 1997. Second, the 1997 Amendments to IDEA do not need to be changed to ensure school safety. Schools are given ample authority under the 1997 IDEA Amendments to maintain environments conducive to learning. For example, a student with a disability who brings a gun to school can be immediately removed from school.
Schools can immediately call the police and report crimes committed by students with disabilities.
If the behavior of a child is not related to the child's disability, the child can be disciplined in the same manner as non-disabled children. While education services cannot be terminated, a child can be removed from his home school and placed in an alternative setting. Moreover, law enforcement agencies across the country report that ceasing education services for any child only increases juvenile crime. In fact, research demonstrates that cessation of education services leads to increases in juvenile crime, drop out rates, incarceration and drug use. Rather than releasing troubled children to the streets, a portion of the solution is to require students who are expelled or suspended to continue their education in secure, supervised educational settings.