Bridge Michigan

The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) wants to eliminate a state rule designed to protect students while certain special education complaints are investigated. But a protection written into law matters only when the government is willing to enforce it. For years, Michigan’s special education rules have authorized MDE to protect a student’s educational program during a state complaint investigation. Now, after acknowledging that it stopped using that authority “many years ago,” MDE is proposing to eliminate the provision altogether. The answer to failing to enforce a protection is not to erase it. The proposed change appears in a broader package of revisions to the Michigan Administrative Rules for Special Education (MARSE). MDE proposes deleting Rule 340.1853(4), or the “stay put” provision, which allows the department to require a school district to maintain a student’s educational status, placement and services during a state complaint investigation when allowing a change would violate the student’s due-process protections