Senate committee hears bill to let teachers temporarily remove disruptive students; disability advocates warn of legal conflicts

HELENA — The Senate Education Committee on Thursday opened a hearing on Senate Bill 138, a measure from Senator Russ Temple that would allow teachers to temporarily remove a disruptive student from class and require a written plan before the student returns.

Temple, R-District 14, said the measure aims to “empower Montana teachers to maintain a positive, productive learning environment for our kids by allowing them to temporarily remove students from their classroom because of the behavior of an individual.” He said the change is intended to protect students who want to learn and to retain teachers who are leaving classrooms because of disruptive behavior.

The bill drew support from classroom advocates and union representatives who said teacher authority to address disruption is already a working model in many districts. Kim Popham, director of public policy and research for the Montana Federation of Public Employees, told the committee: “The number 1 challenge teachers in the field have is that they can't afford to live and work in their communities. And the second most commonly shared challenge is that student behaviors are negatively impacting teaching and learning of students.” Popham said SB 138 provides “an opportunity for the teacher and the student in these situations to come to productive resolutions with the help of school administrators.”

But representatives of school boards, school business officials and disability advocates urged caution and said significant revisions are needed. Lance Melton of the Montana School Boards Association said he and the groups he represented supported the bill’s opening language that bolsters teachers’ authority in the classroom, but they are “respectfully” opposed to the remainder of the bill because it raises “many significant issues,” foremost the impact on students with disabilities. Melton told the committee: “There is no requirement in this bill whatsoever in subsection 2 for there to be any form of manifestation determination. It will often have children with disabilities who may act out as a manifestation of their disability, and we have to be very careful in imposing discipline against children with disabilities when the outburst or the behavior is a direct manifestation of the very disability we're seeking to address with that child.”

Tal Goldin, director of advocacy for Disability Rights Montana, similarly cautioned that federal special-education law — the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act — require processes before a child’s placement is changed. Goldin summarized a central legal concern: “Children do well if they can, not children do well if they want to.” He told senators that unilateral exclusions or mandated exclusions in the bill risk violating federal protections and the U.S. Supreme Court precedent Honig v. Doe.

Committee members pressed both sides on practical implementation. Melton and others pointed to roughly 75 very small Montana school districts that have no full-time administrator; several committee members said that absent a principal or administrator, districts might not have staff to receive and supervise a student removed from class under SB 138. Melton noted that many small districts use special-education cooperatives for services but said the proposed statutory process could be infeasible in some places.

Senators asked about possible fixes. Melton and Goldin urged removing or substantially amending subsection 2 — the portion critics say mandates exclusions — and instead limiting the bill to clarifying teacher authority within existing statutory frameworks and district policies. Senator Temple said an amendment is forthcoming and that the sponsor’s office is working to address concerns about IEPs and Section 504 protections.

Committee members also discussed nonstatutory remedies such as increased professional development and mental-health resources. Melton said a separate problem was the loss of about $20 million per year in matching funds that had supported school-based mental-health services; he said a federal change halted a long-standing “soft match” that had allowed the state to leverage local spending for federal matching dollars.

The hearing closed without a committee vote. Senator Temple said he would work on an amendment to the bill that proponents hope will address the special-education and small-district concerns.

Sources: Committee hearing transcript, testimony from Senator Russ Temple, Kim Popham (MFPE), Lance Melton (Montana School Boards Association), Tal Goldin (Disability Rights Montana).