Emily Woodward PIC (00:02.84)

Today we will be talking with Nico Walker, staff attorney at the Disability Rights Center, New Hampshire. Nico joined the Disability Rights Center in June of 2025. Previously, he represented low-income clients as a New Hampshire public defender and served as voter protection director in Virginia.

Nico proudly served as a special education teacher with Teach for America in Hawaii and taught English and literature with the United States Peace Corps in the Western province of Rwanda. Welcome, Nico.

Nico Walker – DRC-NH (00:43.093)

Hi, Emily. Thank you very much for having me on the podcast. I’m a big fan of the Parent Information Center and the critical work that PIC does to help families support their children. If you’re listening to this podcast, you probably have, but if you haven’t, do yourself a favor and check out the truly excellent resources that the Parent Information Center has on educating parents on the special education process. It can be confusing, but the Parent Information Center resources again are truly amazing. I’m really excited to be on the podcast.

Emily Woodward PIC (01:14.936)

Thanks so much, Nico. Can you start by sharing a little bit about the background of the Disability Rights Center and kind of what led you to get involved with this work?

Nico Walker – DRC-NH (01:24.511)

Yeah, absolutely, so, the Disability Rights Center in New Hampshire, want to say the DRCNH, DRCNH is the federally mandated protection and advocacy organization for New Hampshire. Each state and territory has a Protection Advocacy Agency or, PNA, and we are the designated agency for New Hampshire. So, the mission of the Disability Rights Center is to protect, advance, and strengthen the legal rights and advocacy interests of all peoples with disabilities. Our vision here at the DRC is to envision an inclusive, accessible, and just society where all are treated with dignity and respect, where people with disabilities live the lives that they choose, lives that are free from abuse, neglect, and discrimination, where people with disabilities have equal opportunity to participate fully in their community, and enjoy their lives. So, in summary, the Disability Rights Center is, if you could sum it up in one word, pro-inclusion. These protection advocacy agencies were formed after the abuses of the institutionalization of people with disabilities in the mid 20th century. And we are all about making sure that folks with disabilities live in an inclusive society. And then a little bit about why I joined this work. I strongly believe in the mission of the Disability Rights Center.

And one quote by Frederick Douglass really kind of stuck with me through my prior experiences. It says that “it’s easier to build strong children than repair broken men,” And that really resonated with me after my work as a Teach for America Corps member where I taught eighth grade special education in a self-contained classroom and then also served as a public defender here in New Hampshire focusing on youth representation. So, I really strongly believe that everyone to live in an inclusive society, and everyone has the right to a public education and believe in closing the achievement gap therein. And so really excited to be a part of the Disability Rights Center and work on this critical education issue in New Hampshire.

Emily Woodward PIC (03:35.298)

That’s great. Thank you for sharing all of that and a little bit of background. Can you tell us about the School Discipline Project grants and how it’s helped support families in meeting their educational needs?

Nico Walker – DRC-NH (03:46.048)

Yeah, absolutely. First, I just want to say a big thank you and shout out to the New Hampshire Council on Developmental Disabilities for supporting this work. The DD Council has generally funded a grant focused specifically on the goal of creating systems change in the use of exclusionary discipline in school districts through parent education, individual representation, and systemic advocacy. And what do I mean when I say exclusionary discipline?

That means we’re talking about suspensions and expulsions. Unfortunately, the use of exclusionary discipline is disproportionately used against students with disabilities and has serious long-term consequences. I know, as part of this project, I’ve dived into some of the data here in New Hampshire, and some of the results are pretty shocking. So, as I mentioned before, there’s this problem really feeds into the school to prison pipeline. You know, a child that is suspended is three times more likely to drop out of school by 10th grade than a student never suspended. And a student who drops out triples the chance that they are incarcerated later in life. And so, this exclusionary discipline at the school level really has a long-term snowball effect that’s really harmful, not only to the student, but to our society at large. And then diving into specifically the New Hampshire statistics based on the federal data that we reviewed as well as state level data and our own internal database, we found that New Hampshire students with an IEP, so those covered by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, are three times more likely than their peers to receive an out of school suspension. So again, we’re seeing these really disproportionate impacts on students with disabilities in this exclusionary discipline context where they’re getting suspended more, they’re getting expelled more, and that can have really harmful results down the line. And this project is really also aligned with the vision and goals of the DRC in general by fostering an inclusive environment where students with disabilities are properly supported in their schools and classrooms and part of the school community and not expelled or shunted out of the building for very long stretches of time.

Nico Walker – DRC-NH (06:08.415)

So that’s little bit about the project and why it’s so important.

Emily Woodward PIC (06:16.481)

What can parents and families kind of do to help if their child is dealing with discipline or behavioral problems at their school?

Nico Walker – DRC-NH (06:25.001)

Yeah, absolutely. And first of all, Parents should just know that their student has a right to be in school with their classmates, you know, unless they have been suspended or expelled. You know, if your student is removed from class or sent home because of their behavior, don’t wait until this problem gets out of control. Ask questions and take action right away. So I’m going to just walk through five quick steps that parents should know and steps they can take to advocate for their students. Right. So,

Number one:  If you’re having a concern about your child’s behavior, request an individual education program, an IEP meeting right away. Work with your child’s IEP team to solve problems together. The IEP team must consider the use of positive behavior supports and other strategies to help with behavior that is getting in the way of your student’s learning. If your student does not have an IEP and is being disciplined because of their behavior, write to your child’s teacher or principal about your concerns.

Number two:  The next step I want parents to know about and encourage them to do is to track everything. Keep a written record. If you’re asked to pick up your child early, write it down. Was your child placed in a separate room away from their classmates? Write that down also. Track every single time your student is excluded from the classroom. And again, I spoke about the excellent resources that the Parent Information Center has. PIC has a really excellent tracking template that parents can use just to keep a record and notice patterns around the use of exclusionary discipline. So, check that out and track everything.

Number three:  Parents should request a functional behavior assessment, an FBA, and a behavior plan. Behavior incidents, including classroom disruptions or breaking school rules may mean a student needs additional behavior supports. Ask for a functional behavior assessment an FBA and a behavior plan to be developed by a board-certified behavior analyst of BCBA. Remember, you’re the expert on your child. And so, review the plan and make sure it meets their needs and also that they know what is in it and they’re bought into that process.

Number four:  I’m going to talk about this a little bit more later too but make sure that you’re prepared and know your rights regarding the Manifestation Determination Review, the MDR. I think that’s one of, there’s so many acronyms in the special education space, but Manifestation Determination Review, MDR is one of those really important ones to keep an eye on. The MDR is a very important reading to decide whether your child’s behavior was caused by their disability or if the conduct was a direct result of the school’s failure to implement their IEP. And the decision made at this, MDR meeting affects whether your child can return to school or face exclusionary discipline, such as suspension or expulsion. And this meeting is a really, really important legal protection for students with disabilities. And parents have the right to attend and participate. And then the fifth step that I need parents to know about is that you can ask for the school’s decision to be reviewed. You can appeal decisions the school makes about your child’s placement the MDR decision services, the school district does not have the final say, you have the right to file a due process complaint to the New Hampshire Department of Education and have that decision made by the school reviewed. So those are the five steps: one: request an IEP meeting, two: to track everything, three: request a functional behavior assessment and a behavior plan, four: make sure that you’re prepared for your manifestation meeting and five: know that you have the right to appeal decisions the school district makes about your student.

Emily Woodward PIC (10:19.522)

Thank you so much for outlining those five steps because there’s a lot there and that’s very important information for everyone to kind of know what to do first. When do individuals and families reach out to you at the Disability Rights Center for support and what does that process look like?

Nico Walker – DRC-NH (10:39.521)

Yeah, absolutely. So, I would encourage parents, like I said earlier, not to wait until the problem gets out of hand. Call the Parent Information Center. Call the Disability Rights Center at 603-228-0432. Again, 603-228-0432 to schedule a free legal consultation with the Disability Rights Center and potential representation.

Nico Walker – DRC-NH (11:12.961)

In addition, parents really should be prepared for that manifestation meeting. I just want to say a little bit more about what a manifestation determination review is. So, a manifestation determination review is an IEP meeting where the team reviews the student’s alleged misconduct to ascertain if it was a manifestation of the student’s disability.

The MDR is mandatory before the school district plans to administer a disciplinary action that would mean a significant change in placement. And what does a change in placement mean? That means that student has been removed for 10 consecutive school days or subjected to a series of removals that constitute a pattern totaling more than 10 days in a given school year. So once that happens, once the student’s been suspended for 10 days in a row or 10 cumulative days, if it’s a pattern of behavior, the school is required to conduct a manifestation termination review if your child has a disability or is suspected of having a disability. And at that meeting, the IEP team is going to discuss two questions. Number one, whether the conduct in question was caused by or had a direct substantial relationship to the child’s disability. Or two, whether the conduct in question was a direct result of the school’s failure to implement the IEP.

So, if the school team decides, which includes the parent, and the parent’s input is so important in this process, if the school team decides that was not, the conduct was not a manifestation of the disability, that student may face discipline as any other student without a disability would. However, if this conduct was found to be a manifestation, then the school must conduct an FBA functional behavior assessment must develop the positive intervention plan and return the student to the placement from which they were removed unless the parent and school agree to change the placement. And again, as I spoke about just a second ago, parents have the right to challenge the decision made by the school district in the manifestation meeting by filing for due process.

Nico Walker – DRC-NH (13:30.646)

I also just want to talk about how parents can best prepare for a manifestation determination meeting. I’m saying it’s so important. I’ve given you a little bit about what it is, but how is a parent to actually prepare for this? So, I’m going to list four steps here. And really the main point here is organization is absolutely critical. So, one way that can be helpful in preparing for these is to create a chart to organize the records.

On these cases, there’s often a lot of records, school records, medical records, incident reports, IEPs. It’s helpful in my view to create a chart which summarizes:

Number One: the progression of the students IEPs, know, highlighting similarities and differences as well as changes in accommodations, services and placements over time.

Number Two:  a chart of past evaluations, highlighting supportive information.

Number Three: A chart of disciplinary history focusing on frequency and severity.

Number Four:  A chart of any hospitalizations and changes in medications. It is also advisable to have someone who knows about the child with disability present at the meeting or least prepared to have a service provider write a letter trying the connection between the disability and the behavior to be discussed at the manifestation meeting.

Parents should also consider researching the child’s diagnoses in the DSM-5 and relate those diagnostic criteria to the child’s behavior at issue. So, if you’re having these concerns, it’s super important to reach out to the Parent Information Center, to the Disability Rights Center. This is a little brief snapshot into some of those important legal protections, like the Manifestation Determination Review.

But the great folks at the Parent Information Center,  and we here at the Disability Rights Center can help talk to you and walk you through these processes and advise you on ways to secure the outcome that you’d like for your student. And so, once you make that call into the Disability Rights Center, we’ll have a free legal consultation with you. And then also we do offer, you know, free and reduced legal services. Obviously not everybody can be represented. We only have so many attorneys working. We are a small yet mighty organization but encourage you to reach out to us and the Parent Information Center to conduct that legal consultation and for potential legal representation with the Disability Rights Center.

Emily Woodward PIC (16:19.192)

Thank you for all of that information, Nico and kind of the steps parents can take when they’re either preparing for these meetings or, steps parents can take to walk through this process. Also for the resources that you mentioned for contacting your organization and us here at PIC, um, in the podcast afterwards, we can include some resources to the tracking forums as well as various related resources that will help families. Is there anything additional that you wanted to include before we finish up here?

Nico Walker – DRC-NH (16:57.395)

No, I just want to say a big thank you to the Parent Information Center for all that you do for parents and their families. And the last thing I want to make a plug for is related to one sub issue with this, which is, know, informal school discipline or early pickups. We’re seeing this quite a bit. And so, like I said, when you’re seeing this on your end, use that Parent Information Center tracking tool to track the early pickups, because those also count as suspensions and count towards that 10-day rule. If you take one thing out of this podcast, please remember to track everything and keep a record of the instances in which your child was expelled, suspended. But that also includes early pickups. So, keep a record of those instances and please don’t hesitate to call in to the Disability Rights Center.

Emily Woodward PIC (18:03.17)

Excellent. Thank you so much and for emphasizing about tracking everything and the importance of that as well as everything else you mentioned that will help families navigating this process. Thank you, Nico.

Nico Walker – DRC-NH (18:14.655)

Thank you very much.