Chalk Talks - Deprivation of Education in Violation of Procedural Due Process: The Wrong Turn in Couture

I. INTRODUCTION A student has rights under Fourteenth Amendment while in school.1 The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits State from depriving any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law.2 To prove that there has been a violation of due process under Fourteenth Amendment two things must be established.3 First, individual must be shown to have a protected liberty or property interest, such that due process protections were applicable. Second, it must be proven that individual was not provided correct and appropriate level of due process.4 Procedural due process minimal requirements of notice and a hearing guaranteed by Due Process Clause of . . . 14th Amendment, especially if deprivation of . . . liberty or property interest may occur .5 A student who facing a deprivation of liberty or property entitled to kind of notice and afforded some kind of hearing.6 A student has a protected property interest in public and, as such, has procedural due process protections within process.7 Thus, when a state establishes a right to education, students have a protected property interest in their public education.8 When a student totally deprived of an without a hearing, there may be a violation of that student's procedural due process protections under Fourteenth Amendment.9 However, this only true when right has been established under state law.10 A total deprivation of the total exclusion from process for more than a trivial period. The Court has stated that education perhaps most important function of state and local government12 and so a total deprivation of is a serious event in life of . . . child.13 One way a student can be deprived of an when a student disciplined by being removed from classroom for prolonged periods of time.14 In Couture, a student's mother argued that a teacher's use of timeouts excluded student from classroom and thus, deprived student of an without a hearing, in violation of Fourteenth Amendment.15 The timeouts were a form of discipline that were approved as part of student's Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP) under student's Individual Educational Plan (IEP).16 Notwithstanding their allowance, if court found manner in which timeouts were imposed constituted a total deprivation of education, student was entitled to due process.17 This Note will analyze Couture and discuss why timeouts were enough to violate student's procedural due process rights despite Tenth Circuit's holding. The court held discipline was not a deprivation because it was part of student's IEP and teacher would have been unduly burdened by having to evaluate effectiveness of discipline as she was implementing it.18 II. EXPLANATION AND ANALYSIS A. Procedural Due Process Protections in School Environment Parents and guardians are required by Pennsylvania state law to that their children attend school. This a compulsory attendance law forcing parents to ensure that their children attend an approved educational institution . . .20 As a result, certain rights and liberties are guaranteed for students and parents within educational system.21 Thus, [t]he authority possessed by State to prescribe and enforce standards of conduct in its schools . . . must be exercised consistently with constitutional safeguards.22 This means that there are some procedural due process protections in public schools. B. When Discipline Constitutes a Total Deprivation of Education For timeouts in Couture to violate student's procedural due process rights, all that was required was a finding, by Court, of a total deprivation of since there was no notice or hearing for student. …