This article analyzes four federal court cases dealing with the use of reductive interventions to manage the behaviors of behaviorally disordered students in public schools. Definitions and principles of corporal punishment, suspension, expulsion, and timeout are outlined; and the legal status of these punishment procedures is explained.…

The article addresses the exclusion of social maladjustment from the federal definition of serious emotional disturbance and proposes a limited interpretation which would prevent the inappropriate exclusion of students with antisocial behavior from special education services. Briefly discussed are related issues of identification and programing.…