The National Disability Rights Network, a congressionally mandated advocacy group, has published a report addressing the restraint & seclusion of students with disabilities. Despite gains made against the use of restraints in mental health institutions, the issue has been largely ignored in school settings. The report documents an unsettling list of cases of restraint & seclusion, some of which end in injury or death. About 40 percent of the states do not have laws regulating restraining & secluding students with disabilities, & fewer than half of the states require schools to notify parents when their child is restrained or secluded. The Network is pushing the Obama administration to track incidents of restraint & seclusion in order to determine whether these are isolated incidents, & hopes to see increased regulation & training in positive behavior supports. While IDEA emphasizes the use of positive behavior supports, it does not specifically prohibit using restraints or other aversive behavioral interventions.
Full Story: Christina Jewett, Report on Lack of Regs for Restraint of Disabled Children, Jan 13, 2009, at http://www.propublica.org/article/report-on-lack-of-regs-for-restraint-of-disabled-children-090113
Full Report: National Disability Rights Network, School Is Not Supposed to Hurt: Investigative Report on Abusive Restraint and Seclusion in Schools, January 2009, at http://s3.amazonaws.com/propublica/assets/docs/NDRN_schools_report.pdf
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U.S. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) Discusses New Report on Use of Seclusion and Restraint in Schools at 1/13/09 Press Conference in Washington D.C. http://polfeeds.com/item/Dodd-Discusses-New-Report-on-Use-of-Seclusion-and-Restraint-in-Schools
Awareness video on Restraint and Seclusion that was sent to the National Disability Rights Network on 01/16/2009Restraint and Seclusion Behind Closed Doors 1-23-09
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fkhhv2fUwDg
U.S. Representative George Miller Asks GAO to Investigate Cases of Abuse and Neglect of Schoolchildren
January 27, 2009 2:21 PM
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, today asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office to further investigate recent reports of seclusion and restraint of children in public and private schools across the country. Miller’s committee plans to hold a hearing on these practices in the coming months. Earlier this month, the National Disability Rights Network released a report detailing hundreds of cases where abusive uses of seclusion and restraint by school staff injured or traumatized schoolchildren, many with disabilities. The report revealed cases where students were abusively pinned to the floor, handcuffed, locked in closets, and subjected to other acts of violence. In some of the cases, children died.
As Miller noted in his letter to GAO today, a prior GAO investigation conducted at Miller’s request uncovered thousands of similar cases of abuse at teen residential treatment facilities across the country. GAO’s work laid the groundwork for legislation to address these abuses, the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008 (H.R. 6358), which the House passed in June.
“Unfortunately, vulnerable children and teens are being abused all too often in other contexts,” Miller wrote. “To assist in the Committee’s ongoing efforts to help protect our children, I specifically request that FSI investigate the use of restraint, seclusion, and harmful aversive handling of children and youth in private and public schools.”
http://edlabor.house.gov/newsroom/2009/01/chairman-miller-asks-gao-to-in.shtml
Regards,
Phyllis M.
Families Against Restraint and Seclusion
http://familiesagainstrestraintandseclusion.blogspot.com/
National Disability Rights Network Releases Shocking Report 1/13/2009 on Seclusion and Restraint in U.S. Schools
REPORT : School is Not Supposed to Hurt http://www.napas.org/
U.S. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) Discusses New Report on Use of Seclusion and Restraint in Schools at 1/13/09 Press Conference in Washington D.C. http://polfeeds.com/item/Dodd-Discusses-New-Report-on-Use-of-Seclusion-and-Restraint-in-Schools
Awareness video on Restraint and Seclusion that was sent to the National Disability Rights Network on 01/16/2009
Restraint and Seclusion Behind Closed Doors 1-23-09
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fkhhv2fUwDg
U.S. Representative George Miller Asks GAO to Investigate Cases of Abuse and Neglect of Schoolchildren
January 27, 2009 2:21 PM
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, today asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office to further investigate recent reports of seclusion and restraint of children in public and private schools across the country. Miller’s committee plans to hold a hearing on these practices in the coming months. Earlier this month, the National Disability Rights Network released a report detailing hundreds of cases where abusive uses of seclusion and restraint by school staff injured or traumatized schoolchildren, many with disabilities. The report revealed cases where students were abusively pinned to the floor, handcuffed, locked in closets, and subjected to other acts of violence. In some of the cases, children died.
As Miller noted in his letter to GAO today, a prior GAO investigation conducted at Miller’s request uncovered thousands of similar cases of abuse at teen residential treatment facilities across the country. GAO’s work laid the groundwork for legislation to address these abuses, the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008 (H.R. 6358), which the House passed in June.
“Unfortunately, vulnerable children and teens are being abused all too often in other contexts,” Miller wrote. “To assist in the Committee’s ongoing efforts to help protect our children, I specifically request that FSI investigate the use of restraint, seclusion, and harmful aversive handling of children and youth in private and public schools.”
http://edlabor.house.gov/newsroom/2009/01/chairman-miller-asks-gao-to-in.shtml
There are many families from all over the United States who have children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Emotional Disabilities that are being prone restrained, put in forced locked and unlocked seclusion rooms, closets, suspended, handcuffed and arrested in the public school system because of the behaviors that are part of their disability. Our children are being injured physically and mentally because of their disabilities and the lack of appropriate programs and qualified school staff available to educate them.
Many of our children have little or no communication and the only way they can communicate is through behavior. Because school staff do not understand what our children are trying to say through behaviors, they are prone restrained, put in forced locked and unlocked seclusion rooms, closets, suspended, handcuffed and arrested. With the exception of the suspensions and the arrests many times parents are never notified. The trauma this has caused our children and the emotional drain to our families should never happen to any child or family.
I realize that sometimes our children need a place to calm down so why don't public schools start looking into comfort rooms or sensory rooms? I also realize that schools all over the United States are in money crisis but that should never be a reason to put our children into concrete locked seclusion rooms. When did it become appropriate to treated children this way?
Some of our schools are prone restraining children with Autism and emotional disabilities in Pre-K. That means they are prone restraining children as young as 3 years old. I can't even imagine how terrified these children must be and what this is doing to them mentally and physically.
If you file a complaint with the DOE you are filing a complaint with them about them and nothing happens. It’s a broken process that many families have tried to get help from only to find that there is no help! And then there are the surprise documents that they come up with to prove parents wrong. And let’s not forget about retaliation on parents if you speak up too much.
Because filing a complaint with the DOE is a waste of time parents have turned to Government agencies but still have not found any help. The answer is always the same. We have no authority over school districts. It seems that our public school districts can do whatever they want to our children and not be held responsible. In the meantime our children continue to suffer and behaviors only escalate because of this failure treatment called restraint and seclusion.
Regards,
Phyllis
Families Against Restraint and Seclusion
http://familiesagainstrestraintandseclusion.blogspot.com/
Dear Advocates,
Please write the U.S. Congress people from your own state asking them to put an end to prone restraint, supine restraint and forced locked/unlocked seclusion rooms in public schools. Congress people are going to listen most to their own constituents. I have provided you with some reading material at the bottom of this email that may be useful when writing your letters.
Please copy the following people on your letters:
U.S. Representative George Miller (D-CA) http://georgemiller.house.gov/contact.html
U.S. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) http://dodd.senate.gov/
Please send a seperate copy addressed Lisa Pugh Lisa.Pugh@mail.house.gov
Kennedy Foundation Fellow
U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Education & Labor
Phone: 202-226-3656
Below are links to the members of the committees that will first hear any proposed legislation on restraint and seclusion in schools.
House Education and Labor Committee:
http://edlabor.house.gov/about/members/
Senate HELP Committee:
http://help.senate.gov/About.html
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Use of seclusion is not evidence-based practice - Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing , Oct-Dec 2001 by Finke, Linda M
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3892/is_200110/ai_n8993463
There's No Such Thing as a Safe Restraint
http://include.nurse.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/NJ02/80305005
The lethal Hazard of Prone Restraint:
Positional Asphyxiation
Protection and Advocacy, INC. Investigations Unit
Oakland, California - April 2002
http://www.advocacycenter.org/documents/The_Lethal_Hazard_of_Prone_Restraint.pdf
Can Aversives and Restraints Produce PTSD in People with Autism?
http://www.autcom.org/articles%5CPTSD.html
National Disability Rights Network Releases Shocking Report 1/13/2009 on Seclusion and Restraint in U.S. Schools
REPORT : School is Not Supposed to Hurt http://www.napas.org/
U.S. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) Discusses New Report on Use of Seclusion and Restraint in Schools at 1/13/09 Press Conference in Washington D.C. http://polfeeds.com/item/Dodd-Discusses-New-Report-on-Use-of-Seclusion-and-Restraint-in-Schools
Awareness video on Restraint and Seclusion that was sent to the National Disability Rights Network on 01/16/2009.
Restraint and Seclusion Behind Closed Doors 1-23-09
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fkhhv2fUwDg
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