Opinion ID: 472144
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Expulsion for Handicap-related Misbehavior

Text: 43 We agree that the EAHCA prohibits the expulsion of a handicapped student for misbehavior that is a manifestation of his handicap. This proscription, although nowhere directly stated in the EAHCA, may be inferred from the Act's history, purpose, terms, and accompanying regulations. See Kaelin v. Grubbs, 682 F.2d 595, 602 (6th Cir.1982); S-1 v. Turlington, 635 F.2d 342, 348 (5th Cir.) (Unit B), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1030, 102 S.Ct. 566, 70 L.Ed.2d 473 (1981); Doe v. Koger, 480 F.Supp. 225, 228 (N.D.Ind.1979). 44 The EAHCA was enacted in response to Congress's recognition that countless handicapped children were being denied a meaningful public education simply because states lacked the funds and the initiative to cope with the special problems involved in teaching those children. See 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1400(b) (1982). Consequently, Congress endeavored to supply each state with the necessary funding, so long as each agreed to promulgate a policy that assures all handicapped children the right to a free appropriate public education. Id. Sec. 1412(1) (emphasis added). An appropriate public education is provided by a program that is specially designed ... to meet the unique needs of a handicapped child. Id. Sec. 1401(19). It follows, we believe, that a handicapped child's unique needs and his corresponding handicap-related problems cannot form the basis for denying the educational services that the EAHCA was designed to foster. 45 This conclusion presents a problem in the case of an emotionally disturbed child's aggressive and disruptive behavior. Disruptive behavior is not a monopoly of the emotionally disturbed. For these children, however, such behavior may be the direct result of the handicap--and thus may be no different in principle from the physical incapacities of an orthopedically impaired child or the cognitive difficulties of a dyslexic student. We cannot say this is not possible. Congress, having included seriously emotionally disturbed children within the EAHCA's definition of handicapped children, see id. Sec. 1401(1), must have intended that their handicap-related misbehavior should not be a cause for a cessation of educational services.