At Senate Hearing, Witnesses Offer Alternatives to Restraints, Seclusion

By Nirvi Shah from On Special Education

While many of the reports and previous testimony on the subject in the House have centered on horror stories in which students were severely injured or died because they were restrained or isolated without supervision, the witnesses who testified at this morning's Senate hearing on restraints and seclusion were generally measured and offered specific solutions for reducing their use, and misuse, in schools.

Today's hearing concentrated on how schools and students have and can avoid using restraints and seclusion and address the behavior that may have triggered those techniques to be employed in the first place. (That's some of what I wrote about in this story previewing the hearing.)

Read more HERE.

Data Reveal Disparities in Schools' Use of Restraints

By Nirvi Shah from Education Week

New federal data that for the first time attempt to catalog how many times students were isolated or restrained—by a school employee or with a device—show that, in many cases, those techniques are applied disproportionately to students with disabilities, particularly black students with disabilities.

As part of its most recent data collection, the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights asked more than 72,000 public schools to report how many students were isolated or restrained for the purpose of keeping them from harming themselves, classmates, or school employees. Although such techniques most often are associated with special education, the data show they are used with all students.

Read more HERE.

Report on Necessity of Restraints, Seclusion 'Reckless,' Advocates Say

By Nirvi Shah from On Special Education

A new report from the American Association of School Administrators about the importance of being able to restrain and seclude some students in the interest of school safety has outraged some disability advocacy groups.

The AASA report, "Keeping Schools Safe: How Seclusion and Restraint Protects Students and School Personnel," describes scenarios in which parents said without the use of these methods, they may have had to institutionalize their children. The report also describes scenarios in which students injured school employees so badly they needed emergency medical care.

Read more HERE.

Federal Ed Dept. Will Offer Guidance on Restraints, Seclusion

By Nirvi Shah from On Special Education

The U.S. Department of Education will for the first time give school districts guidance on when to use restraints and seclusion as ways on children with disabilities.

According to Disability Scoop, Alexa Posny, told a federal autism advisory committee Thursday that the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services will issue guidance to schools this fall and will also provide the first national data on the use of restraints and seclusion in schools.

"There are no federal regulations that exist, so it makes it very hard for us at the Department of Education to go out and say you can and can't do this," Ms. Posny told the safety subcommittee of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. "We have no role in enforcement at this point."

Restraints and seclusion are intended to calm and protect students from harming themselves or others. But their use has been under scrutiny for several years and has been investigated by agencies including the Government Accountability Office.

Some states govern their use and others do not. Some individual school districts are developing rules as well. For example, on Wednesday, the Palm Beach County school district in Florida voted to make prone restraint—where a student is held face down with their arms and legs immobilized—allowed only as a last resort.

And in Kansas, the state board of education last week heard recommendations from the state special education advisory committee about restraints and seclusion. They suggested collecting data on the training schools use to teach about the measures and how often they are used. They also want to be sure that Kansas' guidelines on using restraint and seclusion mirror the federal approach—although a federal approach doesn't exist yet. The board will vote on the recommendations next month.

As I wrote last month, some U.S. Representatives resurrected a bill that would limit their use. The bill passed the House more than a year ago with bipartisan support, but the Senate never took up their version of the bill.

The one big difference in the current version of the House bill: It doesn't have the co-sponsorship of Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican. Ms. McMorris Rodgers' son Cole has Down syndrome. Last time around, she proudly supported the bill.

A recent report by TASH, formerly The Association for persons with Severe Handicaps, includes a number of incidents in which restraints and seclusion since last year's bill led to a child being injured.

The title of the report? It's called "The Cost of Waiting."

Article HERE.