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Tuesday Talks!
Join me for weekly discussions about ALL things education...from preschool through high school! As a mom, Speech Language Pathologist, and educator, I share my personal experiences related to each week's topic in relatable and informative ways.
My message about education is powerful: Reflecting on what is and making waves to cause change!
Tuesday Talks!
The Tough Truth About Teacher Safety and IEP Discipline
Send us your thoughts about this week's episode!
When a student with an IEP injures a teacher, the room doesn’t just go silent—the whole system gets tested. We take you inside that moment and beyond it: the legal guardrails of IDEA, the hard questions of manifestation determination, and the daily realities of classroom safety that training days rarely fix.
The episodes starts with the facts: how often threats and injuries occur, why special education staff face higher risk, and how under-resourced settings amplify crises. From there, we walk through what happens when discipline intersects with disability law—what an MDR must decide, how FBAs and BIPs should be built and revised, and why documentation can be the difference between clarity and conflict. Real stories ground this in practice, highlighting the emotional toll on educators and the ripple effects on class climate when learning time is swallowed by chaos.
This conversation is about balance, not blame. Teachers need ongoing de-escalation coaching, clear signal protocols, safe spaces, and staffing that matches student needs. Administrators must move fast on timelines, protect injured staff, and align general ed, special ed, mental health, and safety teams around a shared plan. Parents carry a dual charge: advocate fiercely while embracing accountability, requesting behavior logs and observations, and integrating outside supports so school and home speak the same language. Safety and student rights aren’t competing goals—they rise together when schools act with skill, empathy, and structure.
If you’ve sat in an MDR or managed a classroom after an injury, your insight matters. Subscribe, share this episode with a colleague, and tell us what works—or doesn’t—in your school. Your story can help another educator stay safe and help another student succeed.
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Tuesday Talks is hosted by Dr. Tiffany. She has been a Speech/Language Pathologist for 20 years. She's also a speaker and educational consultant. Dr. Tiffany hosts webinars and in-person workshops for teachers and parents.
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Welcome to Tuesday Talks, your educational podcast helping parents become strong advocates for their kids and teachers to make big impacts in the classroom. Here we go. Hey, welcome everybody. Back for another amazing Tuesday talks. I hope you've enjoyed the past few episodes. I really do put a lot of thought into the topics, and I draw from personal experience and then also from the experience of colleagues that I've either worked with in the past or that I currently work with. So be sure to like, share, subscribe, all those wonderful social media things. Repost, tag me, DM me with any personal questions, or if you're looking for just some consultation, I'm here for that as well. So without further ado, I want to tackle a really kind of difficult topic today. It was as I was putting the show notes together, it's just like, oof, let me be careful with my words because this topic is very serious, but it also has two sides to it that I think need equal attention. And the topic for today is the prevalence of students with IEPs who are physically or verbally assaulting or injuring teachers in school settings. That's a lot, right? Like we're talking about kids who have IEPs who are assaulting teachers physically, verbally, um, and how schools are responding, how law, the law of the DE of IDEA is also there to help direct these decisions, and this concept of manifestation of the disability, how that plays into the disciplinary actions that the school takes, and what teachers and administrators and parents can do. So be sure to stay tuned for the whole episode because at the end, I am going to give some strategies and ways that I think and others that I have talked to that have been in these situations that they feel teachers, admin, and parents can do if you ever face this type of situation. And I just want to be really clear this conversation is not about blaming students with disabilities. It is not about blaming teachers or schools for not doing enough. This is a conversation about addressing real threats to educator safety, ensuring fair discipline while also supporting student success. Because all school is about student success, but in these instances, we also have to take real close looks at educator safety and making sure the discipline, if handed down, is fair. So I wanted to really begin by talking about how frequent these assaults are. Because if you've never been assaulted by a student who has an IEP, then you might not feel like this is a really important topic, but I know people who personally have been assaulted by students in the classroom. And this is when I say assault, I mean throwing chairs, throwing um devices, um, kicking, hitting, punching, slamming doors on hands. This is the type of thing that I'm talking about. And these are experiences that I've experienced myself, or I have close colleagues or friends that have experienced these situations. And typically these are all kids who are either in a special education classroom or students with IEPs that are in general education classrooms for part of their day. So, as we talk about the prevalence, according to the National Center for Education Statistics for the 2020-2021 school year, about 6% of public school teachers reported being threatened with injury by a student, and about 4% reported being physically attacked by a student in the previous 12 months. There is research that shows special education teachers are at three times the risk of physical assault compared to general education teachers. And then there was one study on student-inflicted injuries to staff that reported special education and general instruction assistants, like pairs, bear the largest burden. And as we think about what is causing this to happen, many of the students with IEPs include behavior disorders, emotional disturbances, trauma histories, and the classroom environment may be less predictable, and those supports in the classroom may be stretched pretty thin. We know that schools can be understaffed sometimes. And in these classrooms with students that have a tendency to act out physically, um, those are the classrooms where we should not be pulling resources from. I mean, that's just that just makes sense, right? So, but there are instances where those classrooms are stretched thin with the type of support or the level of support that students in those classrooms um need. And so all of this matters because clearly physical assaults and threats affect teacher retention, morale, safety. Also affects the climate for all the students involved, especially when you're talking about students with IEPs who are in the general education setting and have these moments where they're even either having meltdowns or become physically aggressive. It affects the climate for all of those students in that classroom. And when safety is compromised, not only are people, kids and adults at risk, but learning suffers too. So imagine the time that it takes a teacher to get a class back on track after a student has just had an eruption of behavior or emotion and has thrown things across the crack across the classroom or you know, destroyed a shelf of books or pushed chairs over. Imagine that situation. And these are real things that are happening, if this sounds unbelievable to you. Um, schools also may be under-resourced, as we just highlighted, um, and they can't support the high needs of students and then also train the staff in de-escalation. And at the same time, students with league with IEPs have legal protections. Discipline cannot ignore disability-related factors, and that's where that manifestation of the disability comes into play, and we're going to talk about that a little bit more in depth as well. So, some current stories, you know, I mentioned that I know people who have suffered injuries, I've worked with colleagues who have suffered injuries, and my experience is mainly in the elementary level. As a speech language pathologist, I've gone into classrooms for students with autism spectrum disorder. I've also gone into classrooms with students who have specific learning disability or intellectual disabilities. I've gone into general education classrooms where students with IEPs come in for part of their day. So I've witnessed some of these things as well, but I'll just share a couple of personal stories. You know, I have a teacher friend who has a student with an IEP in her general education classroom, and multiple days throughout the week, there are eruptions of behaviors from this student that disrupt the learning for the entire class. This has been going on for a while. Administration is aware, there have been classroom materials thrown, there have been chairs kicked over, the child elopes out of the classroom, running through the school. And the the the pivot, the you know, the the point of of all this, the peak of it, is that in trying to calm the student down, this teacher was kicked in the stomach by the student and kicked with force. You might think, oh, you know, a five-year-old, no, no, no, these kids are strong. And she was kicked and and hurt and had to leave school for the rest of that day to go get checked out by medical staff at urgent care to make sure that she was okay. And it's something that just blew my mind when she shared this story with me, but it is a real thing that happens. Um, another story. I have a colleague, um, this has been a few years ago now, had her nose broken by a student um who chucked something across the room and it hit her right in the face, blood dripping. Imagine how traumatic that is to the other students in the classroom. You see your teacher now with blood dripping down the face, their you know, administrators coming into the classroom. Getting kids back on track to learn after something like that is pretty challenging. Um, I know another former colleague who had her jaw dislocated by a student who threw their uh device across the classroom, striking them in the face, and ended up needing surgery, mouth wired shut. These are intense situations that go beyond, you know, a pep talk from an administrator or a band-aid. We are talking about teachers who are in the classroom trying to make a difference in the lives of their students and suffering serious injuries that are resulting in surgery, days out of work, and now they can't show up for their families at home either because they are recovering from the injuries that they have sustained. I know personally, when I worked in elementary school, um, I was going into the student's classroom and they were in a specialized classroom, and the teacher's holding up big mats uh vertically and calling for me to come and help the students having a meltdown. I can hear the student on the other side of the mat punching it, kicking it. She's jumping up, spitting over the top of the mats, trying to spit on the educators in the room, myself to be included. And this was when I first entered the profession as an SLP in the school, and my mind was blown. Like practicum for my graduate degree did not prepare me for that. And I'm looking at this teacher, like, what is going on? And her body language and just her tone was, you know, this was an everyday occurrence. This was something that happened quite frequently. And if that child had escaped from the mats that were keeping her in this kind of safe zone because there was a mat on the floor, we're holding up mats. If the child had gotten out of that situation before she was able to be calmed down, they she could have been a harm to herself, to others, to us as educators. And we're all there, just kind of stumped as far as what can be done to really de-escalate this situation as quickly as possible. So no one gets hurt, most importantly, the student, of course. And so schools have responded to discipline and consequences in a lot of different ways, but just keeping in mind that schools have to balance, they have to find a balance, they have to ensure the safety of their staff and students, and also fairly discipline behavior and also respect the legal rights of students with disabilities. And under IDEA, when a student with a disability is removed from their placement for disciplinary reasons, that constitutes a change in placement. And that is a huge deal in education. In that instance, a manifestation determination must be held. And so at these meetings, what the team is asking, the critical questions was the conduct of the student caused by, or did it have a direct and substantial relationship to the child's disability? I'm gonna say that again. The team, one of the questions they're asking is a team, you have special education teachers, the parent, you have your um uh your administrators there as well. Was the conduct of the student caused by, or did it have a direct and substantial relationship to the child's disability? Or was it the direct result of the school's failure to implement the IEP? Even in those questions, it is really framed in a way that's pointing blame, right? Like either I'm gonna point the finger at the kid and say, this was not your actions were not a result of your disability. Or I'm gonna point the finger at the school to say, you all failed to implement this student's IEP appropriately. It becomes a blame game based on the questions that IDEA puts out there, and so then that's when I think a lot of the tension comes to play because teachers can feel really under-supported by their schools because you're thinking, I just had my nose broken, I just had my jaw dislocated, I just got kicked in the stomach. And we're sitting around the table, and one of the questions we have to ask is, did I implement the kid's IEP correctly, or did I fail to implement it correctly? Right there, you can put a teacher into defensive mode because nobody is addressing in this, you know, manifestation determination meeting, nobody's talking in depth about injuries that the teacher sustained. Yes, it's noted, it's put into a record, but there are no qualifying questions to talk about the injury that the teacher suffered. And I think that's where you pit parent against school. That's where the teacher is kind of put on trial as far as questioning about if you implemented the child's IEP correctly. And so in these manifestation determination meetings, if you answer yes to the question of was the student's conduct caused by or did it have a direct or substantial relationship to their disability, if you answer yes to that question, the student cannot be disciplined in the same way as a non-disabled peer. So, for example, the student couldn't be expelled for their actions, for their conduct in that situation. Even if a student without an IEP would be expelled for that same action, a student with an IEP cannot be disciplined in that same manner. And in those instances, the IEP team has to come together to conduct a review of a functional behavior assessment and then put in place a behavior intervention plan. So those are two really big topics. I'm not going to go super deep into those today, but if you're a special education teacher, then you are very familiar with FBAs and BIPs. Like they are part of that manifestation process. If you answer no to those questions, then the student can face the same discipline as a non-disabled student. And the school must provide required services. So if we are thinking about those two questions, again, was the conduct caused by her, or did it have a direct or substantial relationship to the child's disability, or was it a result of the school's failure to implement the IEP? Those two questions can take a while to answer. You are going to be a part of that team if you're the parent, if you're the teacher. You are going to have to divulge details about what led up to the incident, maybe what happened days prior. Are there any records of a student acting out this way before? Parents can bring in advocates to support the fact that, you know, this is a manifestation of their child's disability, and so they should not be disciplined in the same way as students who do not have IEPs. This conversation can last a couple hours in a meeting. It can even go into multiple meetings. And the times that I've seen that happen is when really the parent is advocating for their child, really, to say, you can expel them, you can suspend them for a substantial amount of time, you can't change their placement because their conduct was related to their disability. And once that conversation starts, it requires a lot of due diligence. It relies on a lot of documentation. And so the conversation can really, really go on and on and on. And ways that schools have responded to these manifestation determination meetings. Um, some schools are more aggressive with their approach, and they really hold students accountable and really stand up for their teachers. Um, and they will move more aggressive behavior, IEP students, into smaller-setting programs, more like specialized classrooms that have support and staff in there that can help with the behaviors. Some districts have implemented de-escalation training and safety protocols for their special education staff. Some districts remove the student, and that removal of the student has been used in more serious incidents where there's serious bodily injury if there were weapons involved, even for stuff for IEP students under special circumstances. So there are instances where schools react, I would term it, more aggressive in the way that they are making sure that this type of situation doesn't happen again. But there are also some schools that that face challenges to really implement the child's IEP right from the gate. And so the school's always going to be looked at as the blame for not implementing that kid's IEP appropriately. Also, some schools partner with behavioral health providers or wraparound services when the behavior is tied to a trauma or disability. So maybe they partner with outside agency that can come in. Really, what I think the the crux of the conversation is is this this balance. Remember, we talked about striking that balance between student success, educator safety, and also ensuring that we're not trampling on the rights of students with IEPs. If the school fails to implement the IEP or the behavior intervention intervention plan, that can trigger the manifestation finding that the student's misconduct may result from the school's failure. And that's where the finger pointing starts. That's where teachers feel like they're being put on trial. What didn't you do that could have prevented this? And sometimes that manifestation finding can be misused by schools or parents. Students may escape, you know, meaningful consequences when the behavior is not tied to the disability, meaning the school hasn't maybe properly documented all of the instances that kind of led up to this, you know, peak of acting out. Um, sometimes schools struggle with staffing, training, and consistency with these behavior intervention plans, and that complicates safe responses. I myself have been a part of these trainings, restraint trainings, they would call them back when I did them. And you almost felt like, okay, I'm never gonna do this with a child because if I am trying to restrain a child, and in my attempt to keep the child from harming themselves or others or me, I were to grab tightly and leave a mark. Now we got a whole nother set of problems, right? So you're cautious as the edge as the educator because you don't want to create an even more complicated situation because you have used the training that you got. And for me, it was a one-day situation. There are too many variables at play, there are too many possibilities that come with trying to restrain a child to just, in my opinion, have one day of training and say, okay, now you're great. Go and make sure kids don't hurt themselves, others, or you. I think that's a heavy burden to put on an educator. And there are no higher education programs that are training educators to handle these types of situations. It really is on-the-job training. And that can leave schools vulnerable, in my opinion, because teachers aren't equipped, they end up getting injured, lawsuits are filed, all of these things happen. And I think it's because a lot of times schools are hesitant to say that they can't meet the needs of a student, whether it be behavioral, mental health, they're hesitant to say that they can't meet the needs of that student because according to FAPE, which is you know part of federal legislation, free and appropriate public education, if the school can't meet the needs of the child, then the parent has the right to find a placement, an agency, a setting that can meet the needs of their child, and the school district has to foot the bill. So you have parents who have come to the conclusion as part of a meeting that the school can't meet their kids' needs, and now they found this private agency who says, yes, bring them here and we can meet their needs. We can get them on track academically, socially, emotionally. And the school has, in some cases, been found to have to cover the costs for that. And schools are already strapped for money. We know this funding is a huge issue in schools, and so forking out tens of thousands of dollars for a change of placement for a student is something that any school would want to avoid at all costs. So the manifestation determination process really does ensure that students whose misbehavior is directly caused by their disability that they're treated fairly. That's the whole point of it. Because there were kids that acted out in ways that aligned with their disability, and they were punished the same way that non-disabled peers were. And in those instances, it's not fair. They need more help. It's not that what they did should be excused or wasn't that serious, or just brush it off, but it really is something that they could not regulate or control themselves. And all of the IEP accommodations were put in place, and this kid still acted out and injured someone. And in those instances, should a kid be expelled? It's the job of the school to help them, right? That's the thought process. It's the job of the school to meet the needs of the child. And so many times I've seen, you know, instances where the student's behavior is a manifestation of their disability. And then those behavior intervention plans are revised over and over and over. Those BIPs require such detailed information that it can become a pain in the butt. I'm just gonna say it for those who are required to track all this data because now you're asking a classroom teacher who has either a full classroom, if you have a special education student going into a general education classroom, or if you have a specialized classroom, you're not just one-on-one with these students, but now you have a student who requires you to track data as part of their behavior intervention plan throughout their day in various settings because kids don't pop off just in the classroom. It could be in the hallway, it could be in music, art, PE, whatever. They're needing to track data at a very detailed level so that when we come back to the meeting to talk about, hey, is this BIP? Is this behavior intervention plan working? Has this curtailed the behavior? We need data to look at. And so teachers are then tasked with collecting that data, and that can become a part-time job in and of itself, depending on what that BIP looks like. And so some schools, you know, in thinking about this, trying to help the student, they are, I don't want to say disregarding the impact on the teacher, but if I have been injured and assaulted by a student that has an IEP and I come back into the classroom, and now I'm asked to sit and be a part of this behavior, this functional behavior analysis, and then the BIP, the behavior intervention plan, I might be thinking, what about me? Has anybody checked on me? Has anybody asked how this is impacting not only my trauma here at school? Because I would assume once you have been assaulted at school, there's a level of trauma attached to that experience that now you are like always on point. You know, you were before, but now even more so that you may have a hard time even functioning in the classroom. And also, how is this impacting my life outside of the classroom? I have my own family. And now I am recovering from surgery. Now, you know, my nose, I need cosmetic surgery to get things back into place. Like it is not just impacting the teacher in that moment when the behavior happens, there's a ripple effect too. And so in these meetings, when there's so much attention being poured into is this a manifestation of the student's disability, hearing both sides of it, the parent side, the school side, the teacher maybe feeling like all fingers are being pointed at them. Did you implement the IEP correctly? And why not? A lot of times these IEPs can have accommodations in them that are quite challenging to implement on a daily basis, especially if you're the sole teacher in the classroom, or if you just have one parent in there with you. A lot of times it can be difficult to manage that on your own. But you want to make sure as an educator that you're advocating for yourself, you should be seeking training in this de-escalation. You should be talking with the school psychologist about crisis intervention, trauma-informed practices. If you haven't watched the episode of Tuesday Talks where I talked about trauma-informed teaching and practices, please go back to look at that. Especially those working in special education settings. Teachers knowing your students' behavior plans, those BIPs, knowing what's in their IEP. If there's something in there that you feel like is inappropriate or something that you have questions about how to track, how to implement, you need to be speaking up. Because if you don't and something happens, that question, as part of that MDR is going to be was the student's IEP implemented correctly? And you don't want to be injured physically and then again injured emotionally because now everybody's pointing the finger at you. Request updates to those documents if you see an escalation in the student's behavior, if you see a change in the student's behavior. And I've told, you know, speech therapists this next point over and over again. And I know special education teachers do this. If you're not, you need to make sure document, document, document. You need to document any incident. Thoroughly. What happened? What was the antecedent? What might have happened right before it? What supports were or were not used? The documentation is a valuable piece of that NDR meeting and helps, for all, for lack of better words, cover your butt, right? As an educator, there's a little bit of CYA going on here with this documentation. You want to make sure administrators knew what was going on. So nobody can say, I didn't know this was happening in your classroom. You want to make sure parents are aware as well. Yes, it takes extra time on your end to document everything thoroughly, but should anything happen where you find yourself sitting in one of these MDRs, you will have the documentation to support whether or not you implemented the student's disability or IEP correctly, or to help show the team that, okay, this is not, in your opinion, a manifestation of the child's disability. And of course, the teacher's documentation is not the be-all end-all, but it is a critical piece. And then you want to make sure you're developing a safety plan with the school. If you have a student with a history of aggression and you need to have a what happens when type protocol, you need some teacher signals for support. If you have a pair in your room, you need some type of nonverbal um signal to give a pair to let them know hey, you need to go call administration down here now. We need to get, you know, the resource officer in here now. We need the school counselor in here now, with the school psychologist in here now. You need designated safe spaces in the classroom as well. I talked about the Matt situation in the one classroom that I was in. That was the safe space. That was the space for that student to go into to get out all of the physical aggression so then she can be, you know, talked to, counseled, and helped so that she can get back on track with her learning and that nobody gets injured as well. You want to make sure that you're also collaborating, behavior specialists, administrators. You don't have to face these high-risk situations alone as a teacher. You need to advocate for staffing when it's necessary. If a student needs a one-on-one aid, talk about that with the with your administration. Hey, I cannot manage this kid's behavior in addition to teaching 27 kindergartners with only one pair in the classroom. This kid's throwing stuff all across the room, pushing chairs over, disrupting the learning, right? We talked about that in the episode that I did on um IEPs. You can't allow a student with an IEP to impact the learning of everybody else because we wouldn't allow that in the reverse, right? So making sure that you're speaking up, document that you spoke up, sending in an email to your administrators with what your suggestions are. So should push come to shove and anybody's pointing the finger at you as an educator, you can pull up these emails to say, I reached out for support. I gave the suggestions that I thought would help. I asked for the help in my classroom. And if you didn't get that, then now fingers cannot be pointed at you with blame. And I know we we want to avoid the blame game, but like I mentioned at the top of the episode, the way the questions are even structured as part of the MDR process, it's pointing fingers. It's either the kid or it's the school slash teacher. And those are the two questions. If you believe that a BIP or an IEP is inadequate, being be sure that you're speaking up on that as soon as possible. And a lot of responsibility relies with administrators, right? Teachers are escalating these situations to administrations, and their job really is to protect teachers and the school community. And administrators get a lot of training. I still think that some of the challenges that I've seen and heard kids deal with in school as it relates to mental health behavior, kids are not, kids are coming into classrooms with challenges that go beyond what even administrators can handle or know how to respond to. There's some very nuanced situations that are happening in schools. And when I talk to teacher friends about these instances, they're not even shocked. They're like, this is stuff that goes on regularly, which is kind of disheartening because you want to feel like you can come to a school as a teacher and do the job you signed up to do, which was to help students learn, to impart knowledge on them and not play, you know, safety patrol and you know, taekwondo instructor and ducking and dodging things that are being thrown at you throughout the day. As administrators, there are some system-level strategies that can be put into place, in my opinion, ensuring there are clear policies for how to respond to threats and assaults, providing regular training for your staff that go beyond just one-day training. I cannot emphasize that enough. This needs to be something that is a part of teacher training throughout the school year, in my personal opinion. Those people need to be in the classroom in real time helping teachers know how to respond to the situations that they are facing on a daily basis. It cannot just be this person from afar giving, you know, situational examples that aren't, you know, really conducive to what is happening in your classroom. So those trainings need to be ongoing and regular for your general and special education teachers. Also, as administration, making sure that staffing is appropriate. If you know you have kids with high risk behaviors, ensuring that appropriate paraprofessional support staff, smaller case size, class sizes are there if needed. Staff shortages raise the risk for special education teachers. It creates an imbalance in the classroom. Yes, you have, you know, maybe three teachers to 15, 17 kids, but those be the behaviors of those kids warrant more adult bodies being in that classroom. And so making sure that you're checking in with your teachers to ask, do you need more support in here? And going to whatever links that you need to go to to make sure that support is given. Um, definitely creating a stronger collaboration between your special education and general education teachers, school safety officers, mental health providers, making sure that they have that time to collaborate as well is going to be very important so that they feel supported, so that they know what to do if things escalate. And then making sure that that manifestation determination process is well understood and that it is timely because the federal law states that that MDR needs to happen within 10 school days. So if you have been injured as a teacher, if you're an administrator, you have a teacher injured in your school, that you are required by law to act very quickly. And teachers, you need to know that too, so that you're not being told, okay, you know, we're gonna get to it. We're gonna there's a mandate that within 10 school days, um, that MDR needs to convene and make any decisions or determinations from there. For parents, a lot of times, parents want to defend their kids. And I get it, I'm a mom. I would not want to believe that my kid is capable of acting out in a way that is not related to their disability. I don't want to believe that my kid would just do something aggressive to a teacher without it being a result of their documented disability. But there is a level of accountability to be balanced with that advocacy. So, parents, you have this dual role. And it's really important to accept both of those roles. So when a student with an IEP engages in any kind of assaulted behavior, parents have to understand that there can be consequences, even if your kid has an IEP, if the behavior is not a manifestation of the disability or if supports weren't put into place. Schools are legally permitted to impose discipline in certain cases. I would want my child to understand that this action caused this consequence, not being expelled from school. Maybe it's not in alignment with how a child without an IEP would be disciplined, but you shouldn't be allowed to injure a teacher in a serious way and come back to school the next day like nothing happened. That, in my opinion, is not okay. Parents also need to have an understanding of manifestation and be an active participant in that MDR process to understand what it means, to help gather relevant information to bring to the IEP team. This is that balance, right? We are holding our kids accountable, but we're also understanding the manifestation process, the MDR process. Ask for those things. Don't let them just say, hey, this was not in alignment with your kids' disability. They need to be out of here. Don't allow that. There are instances where kids have had a change of placement or been expelled from school when there was a direct correlation between their conduct and their disability. So don't be the parent that just sits back idle and just says, okay, whatever the school says, ask for teacher observation, ask for those behavior logs, ask for independent evaluations. There are two sides to this coin. It's not always the kids' fault, it's not always the school or the teacher's fault either. And so there has to be that accountability and that advocacy as well. Collaborate, parents, collaborate with teachers and administrators, get an understanding of what could work better. It helps if parents come into the situation, not on the defensive and being just a hundred percent advocate for their kid, but comes to these meetings, approaching it from I understand this is what my kid did, let's determine what caused it and what's the best path forward. It has to be a collaborative effort because once we get into the finger pointing and the blaming, everybody's on the defensive. Nobody wants to admit they were wrong or could have done something different. And if you, as the parent, have created that vibe of like, I'm trying to catch you in a lie, I'm trying to catch you off guard, it puts everybody in a state of defensiveness that doesn't allow collaboration. And I think that's something that really needs to be championed as a parent that you want collaboration. Make sure that, you know, if there are any underlying conditions, parents seek outside supports. Make sure the school is aware that you're seeking those supports and that they're being integrated into that BIP or into that IEP as well. So, really, as we talk about this really difficult topic, students with IEPs can and sometimes do assault teachers. It is awful. It is something that I think happens more than the public knows. We know that special education staff are facing a higher risk, and schools really do need to respond with safety, fairness, and also that legal compliance. That's a huge piece. We cannot just say kick the kid out of the school because they broke a nose or dislocated a jaw. Those are major things, but there is a process in place to make sure that there is fairness in how students are disciplined. And teachers making sure that you're tracking that data, asking for that training, parents that you're advocating for your kids, but balancing that out with accountability as well. If you're a teacher or a parent who has gone through this manifestation determination process, reach out to me. Leave me a comment, send me an email. My email address is in the show notes. Send me a direct message. Let me know how that process went for you. How did you show up in the meeting? How do you feel like the other party showed up in the meeting? Did you feel like you were to blame? Did you feel like others were blaming you? Did you feel supported by administration? Did you feel like your needs were being met? That for both sides, parent and teachers, because again, it has to be a conversation of a meeting of the minds and not finger pointing. And so with that, I want to thank you for joining me for another great episode of Tuesday Talks. Be sure to share this episode, like, subscribe, comment, and I will see you next week. Have a good one. Bye. Be sure to share this episode and join me next week for a brand new Tuesday talks. See ya.