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Thursday, October 22, 2020

Education Department Data on Restraint and Seclusion

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the use of restraint and seclusion.  Many posts have mentioned these techniques, both in schools and facilities for people with disabilities.

The 2017–18 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) is a survey of nearly all public schools and school districts in the United States:

  • Of the 101,990 students who were restrained at school to immobilize them or reduce their ability to move freely or were placed in seclusion — 79,676, or 78%, were students with disabilities (IDEA),
  • Of the 70,833 students who were subjected to physical restraint, 56,905 (80 percent) are students served under IDEA.
  • Of the  3,619 subjected to mechanical restraint. 1,494 (41 percent) are served under IDEA.
  • Of the 27,538 subjected to seclusion, 21,277 (77 percent) are served under IDEA.