U.S. Department Of Education To Offer Schools Guidance On Restraint, Seclusion

Michelle Diament writes on Disability Scoop that the U.S. Department of Education will offering guidance to school districts on restraint seclusion, with the guidance being disseminated before the start of the next school year:

The U.S. Department Of Education plans to offer school districts guidance on restraint and seclusion before the next school year begins, officials said Thursday, even as Congressional efforts on the issue continue to appear stalled.

Alexa Posny, the Education Department’s top special education official, told a federal autism advisory committee Thursday morning that her agency will issue guidance to schools this fall around the same time it releases the first ever national data on the use of restraint and seclusion in schools.

Read more on Disability Scoop.

For those who might think this is good news, it’s not. “Guidance” has no force of law and is not enforceable. Guidance will not prohibit what needs to be prohibited, it will not impose mandatory notifications, transparency, and accountability, and it is not a substitute for a strong federal law.

Florida school district places additional restrictions on use of prone restraint

Jason Schultz and Allison Ross had an article in the Palm Beach Post last month about the use of prone restraint, which is probably one of the most – if not the most – dangerous techniques to use:

After months of wrangling and impassioned pleas from parents, the Palm Beach County School Board voted unanimously Wednesday evening to approve an update to a policy governing the use of a controversial face-down restraint technique on special-needs children.

With no board discussion, the policy update makes a technique called “prone restraint” a last resort that school staffers can only use if a special needs student is acting out in a manner where they might hurt themselves or others. It’s meant to be used only if a long list of verbal techniques and less restrictive holds have failed.

The updates to the district’s restraint policy for special-needs children stopped short of the complete ban on the use of prone restraint that some parents have wanted in Palm Beach County schools for years.

Read more in The Palm Beach Post

.

Congress takes another run at curbing restraint and seclusion; newly revealed numbers suggest staggering overuse and abuse of these methods

Last week, Rep. George Miller’s bill to restrict the use of restraint and seclusion was reintroduced in the House as H.R.1381 — Keeping All Students Safe Act. You can read the text of the bill on GPO’s site.

The bill was referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and has 17 co-sponsors. If your Representative has not co-sponsored it, please call them and tell them we want a bill to restrict the abusive practices that have harmed our children. Enough is enough.

If you’re not sure who your Representative is, you can find their contact information by inputting your zip code to the search lookup on Congress.org.

And if we needed yet another reminder of why we cannot be complacent on this, consider this news report from Orange County, Florida, where Leslie Postal and Lauren Roth report in the Orlando Sentinel:

… Orange schools have used restraint on Alex and 195 other students 1,910 times this school year — representing nearly a quarter of the 8,222 cases in Florida. No school district employed the method nearly as much as Orange, where some students were restrained repeatedly, according to new data from the Florida Department of Education.

Statewide, 2,944 disabled students were restrained by teachers who used various holds to force them to sit or to lie facedown on the floor. Sometimes a strap-and-mat contraption was used to immobilize the children.

Also, DOE reported 3,386 incidents of seclusion involving 1,047 students from the start of 2010-11 school year through the end of March.

The new data on restraint and seclusion — the practice of isolating students, sometimes in special rooms — are Florida’s first attempt to quantify the use of the controversial practices. The state began collecting the information this year under a new state law aimed at limiting both practices.

Read the full story in the Orlando Sentinel.  There is little doubt in my mind that the numbers – as appallingly high as they are – are an underestimate of what is really going on.

And of course, if you’re in New York State, you have no damned clue how often this happens here because the state has not really mandated reporting of each and every incident, in keeping with their longstanding policy of “Don’t ask, don’t tell – and for God’s sake, don’t actually hold anyone accountable.”

Ah, Dee, where are you today, my friend? We’d be in email over this news story or on the phone figuring out what to do next.

Preventing the Use of Restraint and Seclusion with Young Children: The Role of Effective, Positive Practices

From the Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children (TSCSEI):

In 2009, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released findings of cases in which the use of seclusion and restraint to control the behavior of children with disabilities and/or challenging behavior were abused to the point that children were physically and psychologically injured. Some children even died while being restrained. The Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children (TACSEI) has released a new document that reviews concerns about the use of seclusion and restraint and discusses positive strategies to prevent behaviors that could lead to the use of these invasive and potentially-dangerous practices:

Preventing the Use of Restraint and Seclusion with Young Children: The Role of Effective, Positive Practices
February, 2011
by Glen Dunlap, Cheryl Ostryn, & Lise Fox

Disability Rights Oregon Issues Report on Restraint & Seclusion of Children with Disabilities in Oregon Schools

I am posting the following press release in its entirety. After you read it, I urge you to read the report itself and read the descriptions of what some children have been subjected to. It’s enough to make you cry. But the report also offers hope as it shows what can happen when school districts get training and commit to reducing restraint and seclusion.

That Congress has failed to enact meaningful federal legislation is a disgrace. That Alexa Posny – the U.S. Department of Education’s top honcho in special education can respond as she did in this recent interview with Disability Scoop is outrageous:

Disability Scoop: Last year Congress considered a bill to restrict the use of restraint and seclusion in schools, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Do you believe that federal legislation is needed to address this issue?

Alexa Posny: The bottom line is that there should be no harm that is ever brought to any child. I wish we could count on people to do the right thing, but if that’s not occurring then we may need to legislate.

One of the things that’s already been put into place is we’re collecting data to show how many times a child has been secluded or restrained, so the data will be the first place to take a look at what other things should be done.

Sure, Ms. Posny, take your time. Collect yet more data while children are being harmed and put at risk of death, permanent injury, or psychological trauma.

You can continue to collect data after safety protections and restrictions are enacted. Congress must act. And Congress and the Department of Education officials must accept moral responsibility for any child who is harmed by their failure to act.

In the meantime, here is what Disability Rights Oregon has to say on the issue:

DRO has issued this report to provide support for House Bill 2939. Sponsored by Representative Sara Gelser from Corvallis, HB 2939 will receive a public hearing in the Oregon House Education Committee at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, February 16, 2011. The bill will create enforceable minimum safety standards, and ensure that parents learn about incidents of restraint and seclusion and have an opportunity to have those incidents reviewed.

DISABILITY RIGHTS OREGON
PRESS RELEASE
February 9, 2011
Contact: Bob Joondeph, Executive Director, 503-243-2081

Today, Disability Rights Oregon released a new report, Keep School Safe For Everyone: A Report on the Restraint & Seclusion of Children with Disabilities in Oregon Schools.

In Oregon, and across the country, children in our schools may be placed in restraint or seclusion in response to behavioral issues. “Restraint” is the restriction of student’s movement by holding the student manually or with devices such as tape, rope and shackles. “Seclusion” is involuntary confinement in a room or other enclosure. These practices still occur even though extensive research has shown the restraint and seclusion fail to diminish challenging behavior and, in fact, make it worse. In recognition of this situation, the Oregon Department of Education (DOE) issued its first administrative rules to regulate these practices in 2007.

Since the new rules were adopted, DRO has continued to receive complaints of inappropriate use of seclusion and restraint. This prompted us to conduct an investigation to find out if schools are actually following the rules. We learned that while many school districts have adopted policies as required by DOE, most of those policies do not comply with state requirements and some districts have no policies at all.

“Across the nation, children have died and been seriously injured in restraint. Children have committed suicide in seclusion rooms. In Oregon, students have suffered a variety of physical and psychological injuries,” said Chris Shank, DRO Attorney. “Using Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports can avoid these terrible injuries and protect all students, teachers and school personnel who are put at risk by physical conflict.”

DRO has issued this report to provide support for House Bill 2939. Sponsored by Representative Sara Gelser from Corvallis, HB 2939 will receive a public hearing in the Oregon House Education Committee at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, February 16, 2011. The bill will create enforceable minimum safety standards, and ensure that parents learn about incidents of restraint and seclusion and have an opportunity to have those incidents reviewed.

Last year, the US House of Representatives passed legislation to regulate restraint and seclusion in schools. The Senate did not act on the bill before adjournment. Set out below are links to federal reports that the House Education Committee relied upon.

Keep School Safe For Everyone: A Report on the Restraint & Seclusion of Children with Disabilities in Oregon Schools

GAO Report: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09719t.pdf

GAO Highlights: http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09719thigh.pdf

School is Not Supposed to Hurt: http://www.nationaldisabilityrightsnetwork.org/sr/SR-Report.pdf

School is Not Supposed to Hurt Update:
http://www.nationaldisabilityrightsnetwork.org/sr/srjan10/Schoo-%20is-Not-Supposed-to-Hurt-%28NDRN%29.pdf

Next Page »