Teens and Conflict Podcast by David Poeschl.

Hello, my name is David Poeschl and I'm a parent adviser with Matrix Parents at Marin CIL. This is another in our series of monthly podcasts for the year 2024 to 2025.

Today, I'd like to talk about recess and recess in California. It's disturbing that many times I find that students with special needs are restricted from recess as a punishment. That's never a good idea. Students should always have access to recess. And now the California State Legislature has agreed. Bill, that, went into effect this school year.

It's AB 291. If you want to know the Ed code, which I'll have in the notes anyway, it's Ed code number 49055. And what it does is that it makes recess a mandatory, activity for children that cannot be denied. There is some language in it which is a little bit confusing, but if you look at it, it makes some sense if you think about it and read it.

So, what it says is that a public elementary school pupil shall not be denied recess by a member of the school staff, unless the student's participation poses an immediate threat to the physical safety of the pupil, or to the physical safety of one or more of the pupilÕs peers. So, what that means is that, you know, obviously if the child is dysregulated and they can't access recess, then they may be held back, but it can't be used as a punishment.

It must be something that's, that's therapeutic. And what they also go on to say in this relates to that if a pupil's recess period is denied pursuant to school, staff members shall make all reasonable efforts to resolve such threats and minimize exclusion from recess to the greatest extent practicable. School staff members are encouraged to use other means of correction, such as those specified in another subdivision, which has some sure to do with positive behavior support.

So again, this applies to all students in an elementary setting. Sixth grade depends on if that sixth grade is part of a middle school. It doesn't apply. If it's part of an elementary school. It does apply. And the idea of withholding recess that I see sometimes even on IEP like behavior plans now is illegal. So just know that it again, it applies to all students, but particularly our students with special needs.

This is a very big development.

Today, I'd like to talk about an aspect of discipline in special education that has to do with suspensions. And I'm going to bring a couple of things into this. The first is what the law is in California in terms of suspensions, and then how something called informal removals, which we'll talk about in a minute, relates to this.

So, first, let's talk about what the law is in California in terms of suspensions. And I'll just read this one portion to you. So, this will make it, I think, the clearest. So says a special education student generally may not be suspended or removed from his or her educational placement for more than ten consecutive days without parental consent or a quarter of the hearing officer's order.

So, the limitation on this is that if there are suspensions that add up to ten days, and these can all be separate suspensions, but the suspensions form a pattern. So, if a pattern of suspensions, say, a child is aggressive hits someone else. You know, a first grader and he is they are suspended for that sort of thing.

For some that adds up to ten days. Then that forms a pattern of suspensions. And that also, would trigger the next step, which would be called a manifestation determination, which we'll talk about in a minute. So, let's go back to what I mentioned about informal removals. And up until a couple of years ago, this was a confusing area of special education for me at least.

And when I talk about informal removals, what I'm talking about are those times when a child is removed from their classroom for discipline reasons. So, what happens is that they're taken someplace outside the classroom. It could be another classroom or the office. Generally, or the child is sent home. Now, most of the time, in my experience, this is virtually all the time.

Those removals are not recorded by anyone. And those times the child is sent home is not recorded as a suspension. So, what happens is that you have children who were accumulating time outside of the classroom, through these informal removals. And it's not being recorded in any place. So, let's go back to the pattern of suspensions now and let's say a child is, acting aggressively in the classroom and he's not suspended.

He's taken to. I'm sorry. I keep saying he and I should really be there. In that case. I'm sorry. So, they're removed from the classroom and, taken to the office or put into the classroom or sent home. Those times add up in the suspension total. That adds up to those ten days, but it's not recorded any place.

So, what happens is that the school gets away with a child being outside of the classroom and not addressing the issue and then putting off what happens. You know, through the ten days of a pattern, suspensions, they only take the formal suspensions for those. So, what I argue, and this is clear, is to what the what the law is now is that those informal removals need to be counted as suspension time.

And in my understanding, and I think this is correct, but this is one part that I'm not totally clear on, is that I believe that for each hour a child is removed from the classroom, that counts towards an hour of suspension time and a school day. So, six of those or whatever the school date time is in that, that area, where I would add up to one day of suspension.

Okay. So, we have this situation where children are not being formally suspended. It delays the process. That leads up to what I talked about before, which is a manifestation determination. And what that means is that it's an IEP meeting. And the purpose is to determine if the child's disability played a part in whatever the disciplinary action was. So, if the child was aggressive, did their ADHD, did their autism, did their, you know, whatever disability it is, did that contribute to the suspension?

And if the if it was the case that it significantly contributed to, the actions that caused the suspension, then what the team does is that they must follow a different path in terms of the way they work with the child then. So, if the team determines that it was not a manifestation, if the disability was not the reason for the discipline or for the suspensions, then the child can be disciplined like any other child.

However, if the manifestation determined that the disability played a part in the suspension, then what must happen is that a whole series of things occurs. It's either a behavior plan that's already in place, must be improved, or it must be looked at to see if it must be, it must be modified. If there's not a behavior plan in place, that must be done.

What may happen is that the team will determine that something called a functional behavior assessment is required. And that's in an analytical look at behaviors that leads to an improvement or the creation of a behavior plan. So, you see all these things that go into these suspensions become very important. And my recommendation to parents is to keep track of each of those times that, you know, your child has been removed from the classroom, obviously, if they're sent home.

You know that. And to keep a record of it, if you talk to the teacher or hear from the school secretary or whatever, that your child is being removed. Talk to the principal, find out how often it's happening and for how long. And make sure that you record those. Also, if that's happening, you may want to put the district of the school on notice that you understand that a pattern of suspensions can lead to the manifestation to termination.

So, keep that in mind.

Well, that's it for this broadcast of this podcast. Thank you very much. We appreciate you joining us. Remember to call our helpline at (800) 578-2592 for further assistance. Our parent advisers at Matrix Parents at Marin CIL are here to help. Take care now. Bye.

© 2025 Marin Center for Independent Living (Marin CIL). Podcast author, David Poeschl, Parent Advisor at Marin CIL.