Special-Education Column

The Council for Exceptional Children has waded into one of the most contentious issues in special education: discipline.

At the group's national meeting, held April 1-5 in Orlando, Fla., the CEC delegate assembly adopted a position statement on disciplining students with disabilities that stresses the role of alternative settings.

"CEC declares that violent and destructive behavior is unacceptable in our schools," the group's one-page statement reads. "However, in acknowledging such behavior occurs, CEC believes that schools have the responsibility to quickly and unilaterally move students who exhibit dangerously violent or destructive behavior to an alternative educational setting in which ongoing safety/behavioral goals are addressed...