How To Win A Manifestation Determination Hearing - Manifestation Determination for Parents

To understand how to win a manifestation determination hearing, you need to know:

What exactly do I have to prove to win?
How do I prove it?

This article answers those questions.

A parent sitting at a conference table trying to win her manifestation determination hearing

What you have to prove at the manifestation determination hearing to win

At the manifestation determination hearing, if your child’s misbehavior is found to be a “manifestation of a disability”, then the school cannot punish them for it. In other words, you win. The disciplinary process gets canceled.

But what exactly does “manifestation of a disability” mean? What exactly are you trying to prove?

The term “manifestation of a disability” has a very specific meaning. There are two situations, and only two, that are considered a “manifestation of a disability”. To win, you MUST prove one of them.

A “manifestation of a disability” means that the child’s misbehavior which got them in trouble was either :

“caused by, or had a direct and substantial relationship to, the child’s disability”,

“the direct result of the LEA’s failure to implement the IEP” (LEA means the school).

If one of those two conditions is met, then the misbehavior is deemed a “manifestation of a disability” and you win.

Lets take the legal babble out of it and use simpler language. To win, you have to prove that either

your child’s disability caused or significantly contributed to the misbehavior,

the school’s failure to properly implement the IEP caused the misbehavior.

Note that when we talk about a disability causing a misbehavior, the disability doesn’t have to be the only cause. It just has to be part of the mix. You have to show that the disability played some role in what happened.

Note also that when we talk about IEP violations causing misbehavior, the mere fact that the IEP was violated doesn’t get you there. You have to prove both that the school violated the IEP, and that the violation caused the misbehavior.

Now that you know the ultimate point you are trying to prove, you need to recognize that to get there will require that you prove a series of smaller points along the way. These smaller points will be different in each case. You find them by focusing on the causal connection between your child’s disabilities and the behavior that got them in trouble, and using some logic.

Let’s walk through a simple example. Let’s say a blind male student (we’ll call him Bill) went into the girls bathroom at school and is being accused of some kind of sexual misconduct in violation of the school rules. The school wants to expel him. Remember, in the big picture you have to prove that Bill’s blindness caused or significantly contributed to his behavior. To do that you would need to prove some smaller logical points, such as:

Bill is blind
His visual impairment prevented him from seeing the “girls” sign on the bathroom door
Unable to see the sign on the door, he could accidentally walk into the wrong bathroom
Bill says he thought he was going into the boys bathroom, and just made a mistake
There was a braille sign for blind students, but Bill did not access it because he was familiar with the school and was (incorrectly) sure he was walking into the boys bathroom
There was nothing sexual about any of this
Bill didn’t, and couldn’t, see anything inappropriate
Bill left the girls bathroom as soon as he realized his mistake
Conclusion – Bill’s disability caused or significantly contributed to his entering the girl’s bathroom because his visual impairment allowed him to mistakenly believe he was walking into the boys bathroom. Thus, his misbehavior was a “manifestation of his disability” and the school cannot punish him for it.

See how that works? Seems simple enough, but this is a simple example. Your case might require a little more thought and analysis.

Also notice what happens if the school doesn’t agree with one of the smaller points above.

Suppose the school doesn’t agree that Bill’s blindness prevented him from reading the sign. Suppose the school believes that Bill did touch the braille sign before entering, and knew what he was doing all along. They claim they have witnesses who saw him touch the sign before entering the girls bathroom.

All of the sudden, the ultimate causal connection between disability and behavior you are trying to prove is in doubt because the school disagrees with one of the smaller points in the chain of logic.

That’s why you have to go beyond just knowing what you have to prove. You also have to be able to actually prove those points at the manifestation determination hearing if somebody disagrees with you.

How to “prove it” at the manifestation determination hearing

One of the best ways to prove things at a manifestation determination hearing is through the words of others.

It’s fairly common that school officials just don’t view parents’ personal beliefs and opinions as having a lot of credibility. What do you know – you’re “just a parent”. And the parent is often viewed as biased in favor of their child, and unable to be objective.

But the school cannot so easily dismiss what their own personnel say, either live at the meeting or in the form of the school’s own records. And often you can use those words to make your points.

Similarly, written words from reputable non-school sources may also receive serious consideration. Articles from a university or government website, passages from a book by a recognized expert, or a letter from your child’s private therapist can get you some real traction when trying to prove something.

So whenever possible, make your points by presenting them as other people’s points.

Instead of saying “My child has severely delayed language skills”, which sounds like your subjective opinion as a parent, say “The IEP says on page 3 that my child has severely delayed language skills”, and then read that passage of the IEP aloud right from the document, word for word. Nobody will argue with it. Because it isn’t your opinion, it’s what the IEP says. And they wrote the IEP themselves. Those are their own words.

Instead of saying “My child did not understand the instruction the teacher gave” which sounds like your personal opinion, ask the speech therapist if she thinks your child would have been able to understand the instruction the teacher gave. Assuming she says “No, with his language skills he would not have understood that instruction”, you have made the same point MUCH more powerfully. This isn’t a “mom opinion”, this is the professional opinion of the school’s own language expert saying “he didn’t understand.”

RELATED: To see an example of these strategies being implemented, read “Seth’s Very Bad Day” – A Manifestation Determination Example And Case Study

If possible, it’s a good idea to talk to the meeting participants before the meeting to find out what their opinions are, so you can ask the right people the right questions at the right time, and be reasonably confident what their answers will be. Doing so is part of the process of preparing for the meeting.

None of this is to say you shouldn’t express your own thoughts and opinions at the meeting. You can and you should. Just understand that when it comes to proving key points where others are disagreeing with you, this technique can be much more persuasive than just saying “I think…” and “I feel…”. When you need to add some persuasive punch and credibility to what you are saying, this is one effective way to do it.

But it takes preparation to pull this off. You can’t go into a meeting unorganized and flying by the seat of your pants and use this technique effectively. You have to figure out ahead of time the key points you will need to prove and plan out how you will make those points through other people’s words.

As I have explained in detail in other articles, preparation is the key to success. But assuming you have done the proper preparation, this technique for proving your points is a powerful part of the strategy for how to win a manifestation determination hearing.

What you have to prove at the manifestation determination hearing to win

How to “prove it” at the manifestation determination hearing

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