If your child has an IEP and the school wants to change their placement for behavior, a manifestation determination review (MDR) is not a general meeting about whether the behavior was bad. It is a legal review with a short clock and only two questions.
The review must happen within 10 school days of any decision to change the child's placement because the child violated a code of student conduct. That rule is in 34 CFR §300.530(e).
A change of placement can mean a removal for more than 10 consecutive school days, or a series totaling more than 10 school days in a school year that forms a pattern, under 34 CFR §300.536. Early send-homes count too. Keep your own count, calendar the decision date, and ask in writing for the MDR date.
Under §300.530(e), the team must review all relevant information and decide:
If the answer to either question is yes, the behavior is a manifestation. There is no third question about whether the parent is cooperative or staff are frustrated. Bring a drifting meeting back to the two questions.
Under §300.530(e), participants are the agency, the parent, and relevant members of the IEP team, as determined by the parent and the agency — people who know the disability, the IEP, and the incident. The team must look at the IEP, teacher observations, and any relevant information you provide.
If the IEP was not followed, bring proof. Under §300.530(e)(3), if the team finds a failure to implement the IEP, the school must take immediate steps to fix it.
Under §300.530(f), the IEP team must conduct a functional behavioral assessment and put a behavioral intervention plan in place, or review and change an existing plan. The child must be returned to the placement they were removed from, unless the parent and the school agree to a change as part of the behavior plan, or a special-circumstances removal below applies.
The school may discipline the child in the same way and for the same length as a child without a disability, under §300.530(c). But learning does not stop. Services must continue so the child can keep taking part in the general curriculum and keep moving toward IEP goals, as required by §300.530(d).
Even when behavior is a manifestation, school staff may remove a student to an interim alternative educational setting for not more than 45 school days in the special circumstances in §300.530(g): a weapon, illegal drugs or selling a controlled substance, or serious bodily injury at school, on school premises, or at a school function. That setting is decided by the IEP team under §300.531.
A parent who disagrees with the MDR result or a placement decision may request an expedited due process hearing under §300.532. The hearing must happen within 20 school days of the request, and a decision must be issued within 10 school days after the hearing, under §300.532(c). During that appeal, the child generally stays in the interim setting until the hearing officer decides or the removal period ends, whichever comes first, under §300.533 — unless you and the school agree otherwise.
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Rules checked October 2026 — every rule on this page is cited to its source. Verify day counts against your district's official calendar.