Question:

Hello Diana Wright, Gail Cafferata, Denise Keller and Dru Saren:

I was wondering if I might ask for a little help from the four of you.I am preparing a Research Paper for my Level II Special Education Credential on Manifestation Determination. Could any of you give me some ideas on where I might find some good material on this issue?  Of course I have used search engines to get some information on Manifestation Determination, however, I was thinking you may know of a wealth of information that I could not get to with a simple search engine on the Internet.

Please let me know if you can help me out.

Thank you.
Jim Boling,
Resource Teacher
Riverbank High School

Answer:

Dear Jim,

For those who may wonder what the heck “manifestation determination” (or MD as it is commonly referred to) is, here is a quick and dirty overview of a very complex legal issue that lacks clear interpretation.

An MD refers to a process that occurs following suspensions or a proposed change in placement due to serious behavior problems that a special education student has engaged in. The process is used to decide if it is reasonable to attribute the behavior to the disability that qualified the student for special education services.

Prior to an IEP team meeting, the team must review various types of assessments, record reviews and other pertinent information. They must then decide if they have sufficient information to make the determination or if further assessment is needed.

Once enough information is gathered, the team must decide:

• If the IEP, placement, supplementary aids and services were appropriate

• If the IEP services and behavioral intervention strategies were consistently implemented
  
  
• Was the behavior caused by or did it have a direct and substantial relationship to the student’s disability

If the student’s behavior is not a manifestation of a disability, the disciplinary procedures applicable to students without disabilities may be applied to this student.

If the behavior is determined to be a part of the disability, the IEP team makes an appropriate plan to address some or all of the following areas:

• Consistently implement the IEP as written.
• Change the IEP as needed (e.g., adaptations, service, alternative consequences, etc.).
• Complete additional evaluations to provide additional service, if needed.
• Conduct a Functional Behavior Assessment to develop more effective behavior intervention strategies.

There are many sticky wickets inherent in this process and few clear cut answers. For example, does a student with an attention deficit lack the impulse control to stop himself before he engages in a problem behavior? Does a student with mental retardation understand a rule well enough to obey it in when circumstances are a little murky? This is where the courts have gotten involved. So Jim, the short answer is No, there are no brief overviews because you get into legal decisions that are ever-changing and can be at odds with each other.

Some of the legal intricacies are explained in Walsh, Jim (2007) Manifestation Determinations: Avoiding Needless Conflict and Common Mistakes LRP Publications www.lrp.com

The resources below describe MD in greater detail:
http://www.nps.k12.nj.us/BehavioralPresentation/IDEA's%20Legal%20Mandates/
manifestation_determination_revi.htm

http://www.specialed.spps.org/Manifestation_Determination2.html

http://www.nrms.org/docushare/dsweb/GetRendition/Document-465/html