From USA Today:

In hearings seven months ago, congressional investigators disclosed evidence of widespread restraint and seclusion of students by school staff around the country, most of it involving students with disabilities. Some of the cases ended in death. Since the hearings, advocates say, only a handful of states have moved to restrict or regulate the practice.

“There has been a lot of attention, a lot of advocacy, a lot of family members involved, but it’s slow going,” says Jane Hudson, an attorney for the National Disability Rights Network, based in Washington, D.C.

See related interview with Rep. George Miller (D-California), who is co-sponsoring legislation that would prohibit or limit restraint and seclusion of students except in rare cases, when there is “imminent danger of injury.” An excerpt:

This abuse is a nightmare … The types of abuse these kids are suffering are so disturbing, you’d think these were stories about torture tactics used at prison camps. Instead they’re happening to some of our youngest children, in our schools.

From the Hartford Courant, Contra Costa [CA] Times, NPR, Muskegon [MI] Chronicle, press release from the House Education and Labor Committee:

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers has introduced legislation aimed at protecting students in the nation’s schools from harmful uses of restraint and seclusion.

The legislation follows congressional hearings and a report by the Government Accountability Office last spring that documented hundreds of cases of schoolchildren being subjected to inappropriate uses of restraint and seclusion in schools, often by untrained school staff. A disproportionate number of those cases involved students with disabilities; some students died.

Lack of oversight has led to a “serious, systemwide failure” that in some cases has subjected students to “nothing short of torture,” said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), who co-sponsored the House bill with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) A comparable measure was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT).

The bill would establish minimum safety standards in schools, prohibiting  physical restraint or locked seclusion except in cases where there is imminent danger of injury, and where the restriction is imposed by a trained staff member.

It would also: prohibit mechanical restraints, including strapping children to chairs or duct-taping parts of their bodies; prohibit any restraint that restricts breathing, and require schools to notify parents immediately after incidents when restraint or seclusion was used.

In addition, the bill would require states to collect detailed data on restraint and seclusion, make it publicly available, and report it to the federal government.

(more…)

From WTVF Nashville, and the [Columbia, TN] Daily Herald:

A judge has issued an emergency injunction against educators at a Tennessee elementary school following allegations that a student with developmental disabilities was stripped down to his underwear and locked in a seclusion room.

Michelle Parks, mother of the 9-year-old boy, said her son’s civil rights had been violated. “I don’t think our elected representatives envisioned a prison cell inside an elementary school for special needs children,” said Kevin Latta, her attorney.

Parks said she was called to Joseph Brown Elementary School in Columbia to pick up her son for acting out in class. She found him wearing only his underwear and standing in a small cinderblock seclusion room with a concrete floor, no chairs and a door with no handle.

The school suspension notice says the boy, who is diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder, was verbally abusive and kicked a teacher. Parks said she was told her son’s clothes were taken away for his own protection.

(Photo from Daily Herald)

From the Education Week’s On Special Education Blog:

Education Secretary Arne Duncan has asked state education chiefs to review their policies on restraints and seclusion of students, and develop or revise policies as necessary to assure children are safe.

Duncan’s letter follows congressional testimony and a report by the Government Accountability Office that documented hundreds of allegations of school-related death and abuse since 1990. The majority of the allegations involved students with disabilities. The GAO found no federal laws restricting the use of seclusion and restraints in public and private schools, and widely divergent laws at the state level.

Duncan said he was “deeply troubled” by the testimony. He offered Illinois’ policy as a model, saying it includes a “strong focus upon Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) as well as state regulations that limit the use of seclusion and restraint under most circumstances.”

The July 31 letter asked states to respond by August 15.

By Alan Judd in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The suicide of 13-year-old Jonathan King highlights concerns about a lack of regulation of what are called “psychoeducational” schools for children with  behavioral problems.

Authorities say the schools offer a cost-effective way for allow such children to be educated in their communities. Some parents and advocates question their disciplinary tactics, especially physical restraint and seclusion.

Jonathan hanged himself in a stark 8-by-8 concrete-block “time out” room in his Georgia school, using a belt provided by a teacher. The boy, who had ADHD, had been repeatedly locked up there for misbehaving. Georgia educates about 5,600 students with disabilities at 24 “psychoeducational” schools. The state does not regulate restraint or seclusion of students.

Earlier posts here.

Related posts here.

(Photo from Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

From the [Minneapolis-St. Paul] Star-Tribune:

Parents of a 20-year-old man with developmental disabilities have filed a lawsuit  claiming that the state hospital in Cambridge, MN, used “abusive, inhumane, cruel and improper” seclusion and restraints. The lawsuit alleges that the facility routinely and illegally used metal handcuffs, leg shackles, and nylon straps on residents.

James and Lorie Jensen, whose son, Bradley, lived at the facility in 2006 and 2007, are seeking class-action status and unspecified damages.

Hospital staff put Bradley Jensen in leg and hand restraints normally used in law enforcement at least 70 times for minor behaviors such as spitting, vomiting, urinating, laughing or other manifestations of his disability, according to the suit.

… “No human being should have to go through what Brad went through,” Lorie Jensen said in a statement. “It was demeaning and humiliating and hurtful. Other means are available to correct the behavior.”

See also: Students suffer abusive restraints, GAO report says — U.S. News & World Report

Earlier posts here.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The growing presence of students with disabilities in mainstream school settings has attracted greater attention to educators’ use of restraint holds and isolation as methods for controlling students.

Now advocacy groups are pushing for a federal ban on such tactics, and a report by the Government Accountability Office has documented hundreds of allegations of school-related death and abuse since 1990. The majority of the allegations involved students with disabilities.

In testimony before Congress in May, Education Secretary Arne Duncan called such findings “disturbing” and said he is instructing chief school officers in all 50 states to detail their plans for keeping students safe. Several dozen advocacy groups subsequently discussed the issue in a meeting with White House staff.

Among the cases documented by the GAO were a 14-year-old Texas boy who refused to stay seated in class and died after a 230-pound teacher tried to restrain him by lying on top of him, and a Florida teacher’s aide who gagged and duct-taped children as young as six for misbehaving.

Educators say it is sometimes their duty to restrain students. “You can’t sit and call the cops and watch,” said Bruce Hunter, associate executive director of the American Association of School Administrators.

Although some situations have been the result of threatening behavior by such students in classrooms or hallways, researchers say many incidents don’t appear to have involved children who were aggressive.

Related posts here.