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Abstract

Few issues in the education of behaviorally disordered students have been as widely or hotly debated as the use of punishment to manage their behaviors. In addition to the empirical and ethical dimensions of this debate, vexatious legal questions have been raised, Unfortunately, legislation dealing with these interventions has not provided sufficient answers to these questions. However, decisions in four recent federal court cases — Honig v. Doe. Cole v. Greenfield-Central Community Schools, Hayes v. Unified School District No. 377, and Dickens v. Johnson County Board of Education — have dealt with the use of some reductive interventions with this population. These decisions will help clarify the appropriate use of the procedures litigated in these cases. The purpose of this article is to discuss and analyze these four cases as well as to explicate the legal status of the punishment procedures affected by the decisions rendered.

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The Use of Corporal Punishment,Suspension,Expulsion,and Timeout with Behaviorally Disordered Students in Public Schools: Legal Considerations

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