Christina Samuels writes in Education Week that the use of seclusion and restraints has prompted local attention in some deadly cases, but that national action has been hampered because the federal government does not track the issue and state policies vary widely.

Advocacy groups seeking action have responded by releasing a report, “School is Not Supposed to Hurt,” which documents deaths and injuries among students. The Government Accountability Office plans to release its own report in the next several weeks.

Some observers suggest that the use of seclusion and restraints has come as students with disabilities have moved into the general education setting, but the report documents cases of injuries that occurred in separate schools for students with disabilities.

Advocates and educational organizations are calling for more training for educators to cut down on the use of restraints and seclusion in schools.

An excerpt:

“Probably the most frustrating thing we hear is that people at the local level don’t feel like they have an alternative,” said  [Barbara Trader, the executive director of the disability advocacy group TASH].

“We would like to get to a place where there’s not one teacher who says that, and where the standard is that people know what to do to support kids who have behavior issues,” she said. “It would be inexcusable if an elementary school teacher didn’t know how to teach literacy, but it is excusable that they don’t know how to deal with behavior.”

Earlier post here.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 6:55 am and is filed under education, public policy, restraints and seclusion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.