LSNYC Testifies Before City Council on Need for Greater Transparency, Accountability in School Discipline Process for Students with Disabilities 

New York, NY – Advocates from Legal Services NYC (LSNYC) recently testified before the New York City Council’s Committee on Education about the ongoing challenges students with disabilities face in the discipline process and the need for more transparency and accountability in how the Department of Education conducts Manifestation Determination Reviews (MDRs). 

MDRs are required under federal law for students subject to long-term suspensions (greater than 10 days). School districts are required to determine whether the student’s behavior that lead to the suspension is related to their disability, or the incident is the result of a school’s failure to implement the students’ individualized education program (IEP). If the behavior is determined to be related, the student is returned to class and given the supports necessary to learn. If the behavior is determined to not be related, the student serves the full term of the suspension.  

However, as education advocates know well, schools often do not follow legally required procedures resulting in improper outcomes for many of these MDRs. Students with disabilities already experience some of the highest disproportionate rates of suspension as recent discipline data shows:      

• Students with disabilities are disproportionately disciplined. NYC public schools issued over 14,000 disciplinary removals of students with disabilities during the 2023-2024 school year—nearly 40% of all suspensions. However, students with disabilities comprise just 22% of the student population. 

• Between 2015 and 2018, only about half of MDRs included an “effective discussion” of how a student’s disability may have contributed to their behavior. 
   

• Positive determinations linking a student’s behavior to their disability were made more often for white students than for Black and Latino students.  

For the past year, LSNYC has worked with City Council Committee on Education Chair Rita Joseph and other partners to raise awareness about persistent inequities in the discipline process and demand stronger oversight and data transparency to stop the cycle of disruption for kids with disabilities—reforms that are especially crucial as the U.S. Department of Education has stopped gathering and analyzing education data, including data related to students with disabilities. 

“In these cases, too often we see school officials focus solely on punishment while overlooking their legal requirements to properly support students with disabilities,” said Nelson Mar, a Senior Staff Attorney in Legal Services NYC’s Bronx office. “When schools comply with federal and state laws to meaningfully review and address the underlying causes of a student’s behavior it is a win-win for both students and staff because it can prevent past behaviors from recurring and reduce unnecessary suspensions. Greater transparency would provide parents and policymakers with the data necessary to ensure the DOE is complying with the laws to provide every student the protections and supports they need to grow and learn.”