In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between police and autistic people. When cops encounter autistic people, they may not respond in the same way as NT people, and things can get out of hand. Among other things, they may misinterpret autistic behavior as aggressive or defiant. Training could help.
Showing posts with label restraint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label restraint. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Report on the Need for Police Training
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Civil Rights Report
In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities.
- Students with disabilities served under IDEA represented 14% of K-12 student enrollment, but 28% of students mechanically restrained, 68% of students secluded, and 76% of students physically restrained.
- Preschool children with disabilities served under IDEA represented 23% of preschool enrollment, but 41% of preschool children who received one or more out-of-school suspensions and 74% of preschool children who were expelled.
- Students with disabilities represented 17% of K-12 student enrollment, but 27% of students who received one or more in-school suspensions, 29% of those who received one or more outof-school suspensions, and 24% of those who received expulsions
- Students with disabilities served under IDEA represented 14% of total K-12 student enrollment, but 25% of students referred to law enforcement and 25% of students subjected to schoolrelated arrests
Sunday, September 29, 2024
New California Laws
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of legislation today to make California more accessible and inclusive to all people with disabilities and strengthen California’s nation-leading commitment to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities so they can live and thrive in their communities.“When we say ‘California for ALL,’ we mean every single person in this state should be able to thrive – and that includes those with physical, intellectual, and developmental disabilities. I’m proud to continue our historic actions to protect vulnerable students, improve statewide supports, and strengthen future opportunities for the disabled community.”Bigger picture
Governor Gavin Newsom
The bills signed by the Governor build on six years of actions to make the California dream more accessible to people with disabilities. Scores of investments and reforms will improve dyslexia detections, support special education services, and increase access to higher education, housing options, health care affordability, home care and community day services, public safety practices, civil rights protections, and more.
A priority of the Newsom administration has been supporting the 400,000 Californians with intellectual and developmental disabilities, such as Down Syndrome and autism. A Master Plan for Developmental Services was announced in January to engage the public in modernizing the system for better outcomes for all; public meetings continue in October and a framework will be released in March 2025. This week, the first Comprehensive Dashboard on people served and services provided was unveiled by the Department of Developmental Services. On January 1, 2025, rates paid to service providers will increase and the first quality incentive program will begin. This is the culmination of nearly $2 billion invested in provider rates by the Newsom administration and Legislature since 2022 in response to a landmark rate reform study in 2019.
What the new laws do
Create Historic Transparency, Accountability, and Equity in Support Services for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: The State’s regional centers that provide support services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities will now be subject to the Public Records Act. This change will increase public transparency, accountability for outcomes, and equity of services in all communities. California’s service system is funded with approximately $15 billion annually to support 400,000 people with Down Syndrome, autism, and other developmental disabilities in their homes, schools, jobs, and communities.
The state will also begin to review and update biannually the provider rate reform study, beginning in 2025. The updated rate model will be posted on the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) website.
Max Benson’s Law to Protect Vulnerable Students’ Safety and Rights: Prone restraint is a technique that physically or mechanically restrains students in a face down position — one of the most dangerous forms of emergency interventions, which has resulted in severe injuries and even fatalities among students. This new law protects students by prohibiting its use in ALL California schools.
Jumpstarts Career Pathways for All: Students with disabilities who have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) will start planning for their post-secondary goals no later than age 16, and possibly as early as they begin high school– up to two years earlier than current law. One in 8 California students have an IEP and will have greater access to higher education and to work opportunities with planning that begins as early in the high school career as deemed appropriate by the student’s IEP team.
Additional legislation signed today to support the disability community and a more inclusive California for All:
SB 445 by Senator Anthony Portantino (D-Glendale) – Special education: standardized individualized education program template: translation.
SB 483 by Senator Dave Cortese (D-Campbell) – Pupil rights: prone restraint.
SB 939 by Senator Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) – Educational equity: school site and community resources: neurodivergent pupils.
SB 1001 by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Oakland) – Death penalty: intellectually disabled persons.
SB 1197 by Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil (R-Modesto) – In-home respite services for families caring for children with an intellectual or developmental disability, including foster families.
AB 438 by Assemblymember Blanca Rubio (D-West Covina) – Pupils with exceptional needs: individualized education programs: postsecondary goals and transition services.
AB 1147 by Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-San Luis Obispo) – Disability Equity, Transparency, and Accountability Act of 2024.
AB 1938 by Assemblymember James Gallagher (R-Chico) – Special education: inclusion and universal design for learning.
AB 2423 by Assemblymember Devon Mathis (R-Visalia) – Developmental services: rates.
AB 2821 by Assemblymember Tim Grayson (D-Concord) – Postsecondary education: students with disabilities.
Sunday, September 22, 2024
IDEA and a Case in Connecticut
In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The Trumpist Project 2025 would turn that law into a "no-string" block grant, thereby gutting its protections for students with autism and other disabilities. Here is an example how child advocates use IDEA, and what they would lose if the Trumpist agenda goes into effect.
The Office of the Child Advocate and Disability Rights Connecticut have jointly filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs against the Connecticut Department of Education, alleging that the department is not fulfilling its role of monitoring schools for children with disabilities.
The complaint, filed on Wednesday, follows a lengthy investigation by OCA and Disability Rights CT that publicly revealed alarming conditions for those children in specific Connecticut schools earlier this year.
The investigation, which took place between 2019 and 2022, looked at a private school system known as High Road Schools. These private special education schools serve students whose home districts are unable to provide appropriate services for children with special needs. But the investigation alleged that staff at the schools were often uncertified, that education was of poor quality, that students were restrained and put in seclusion at a high rate, and that most children in the programs were sent there from low-income communities of color.
Officials at OCA and Disability Rights CT earlier this summer also filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice alleging disability discrimination by four school districts — Hartford, Bridgeport, Waterbury and Stratford — that send their special needs students to High Road Schools.
That complaint is trying to hold the public school districts accountable, according to Sarah Eagan, the state’s child advocate.
The new complaint is targeting the state’s role, claiming that in its alleged lack of sufficient oversight and regulation, the Connecticut Department of Education is in violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which together ensure that children with disabilities have access to quality education and opportunities.
Monday, June 17, 2024
Residential Treatment Facilities
In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities.
The Senate Finance Committee has issued a staff report titled Warehouses Of Neglect: How Taxpayers Are Funding Systemic Abuse In Youth Residential Treatment Facilities
In July 2022, the Senate Committee on Finance (the Committee) and Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions launched an investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect at Residential Treatment Facilities (RTFs) operated by four providers – Universal Health Services (UHS), Acadia Healthcare (Acadia), Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health (Devereux), and Vivant Behavioral Healthcare (Vivant). Since then, the Committee has engaged in a sweeping inquiry, reviewing over 25,000 pages of company productions, holding dozens of conversations with behavioral health stakeholders, and visiting RTFs on the ground.
Children should receive high-quality mental health services in the least-restrictive environment that meets their needs. Children are sent to RTFs by private and public actors, including parents and guardians, psychiatrists, child welfare agencies, the juvenile justice systems, and educational systems. The Committee has jurisdiction over many RTF placements funded through the Medicaid program and the Social Security Act’s child welfare provisions, through which RTF providers are paid per diems for the children in their care.
The RTF providers optimize per diems by filling large facilities to capacity and maximize profit by concurrently reducing the number and quality of staff in facilities. The Committee’s investigation found that children at RTFs suffer harms such as the risk of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at the hands of staff and peers, improperly executed and overused restraint and seclusion, inadequate treatment and supervision, and non-homelike environments. These harms amount to acute safety concerns and have long-term effects, including suffering, trauma and even death. Taken together, the Committee finds that these harms are endemic to the RTF operating model.
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At its core, the RTF model typically optimizes profit over the wellbeing and safety of children. The rampant civil rights violations that children experience in RTFs are a direct consequence of the industry’s model. RTFs employ substandard labor practices and avoid investments in physical maintenance. So long as providers are allowed to proceed with business as usual, children will continue to suffer.
Saturday, June 8, 2024
Autistic Teen Dies After Abuse by Jail Guards
In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between the justice system and autistic people.
Erin Glynn and Laura A. Bischoff at the Columbus Dispatch:
Erin Glynn and Laura A. Bischoff at the Columbus Dispatch:
Inside the Montgomery County Jail, guards taunted, belittled and threatened Isaiah Trammell, a 19-year-old who had autism spectrum disorder.
Deputies on the overnight shift told Trammell he was "ridiculous," "embarrassing" and "acting like an ass," surveillance video shows. Officers strapped Trammell into a restraint chair two separate times and threatened more time in the chair if he didn’t calm down.
Trammell couldn’t calm himself. He banged his head on the cell door, howled and repeatedly screamed “Let me out!”
Head-banging or other self-injury behaviors are more prevalent among people with autism. For Trammell, it was a dangerous coping mechanism that he continued during his brief time in jail.
“You remember how that restraint chair felt? Remember what the sergeant said? You're gonna go in for 10 hours next time you go in there. You want to do that?" one officer told Trammell, hours after he had been released from the chair the first time.
One officer said they couldn't use the restraint chair, prompting another to respond: “Just put the chair in front of his (expletive) cell so he stops. Give him a constant reminder.”
The restraint chair is supposed to be a last resort, only used in extreme circumstances and when the safety of the incarcerated person or others is in danger. Staff are supposed to use other interventions first, such as offering medication.
Trammell begged for his medications, a phone call and a blanket. No one heeded his pleas.
Less than 10 hours after entering jail, Dayton paramedics loaded Trammell into an ambulance.
He died three days later. The coroner ruled it a suicide − a ruling Trammell's mother wants changed.
Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck said Trammell shouldn’t have been in jail, given his mental health issues.
Trammell's case isn't an outlier. A USA TODAY Network Ohio investigation found that most of the 16,000 people in Ohio jails each day suffer from mental illness.
Wednesday, January 17, 2024
Restraint and Seclusion 2024
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.
‘I’m Not Safe Here’: Schools Ignore Federal Rules on Restraint and Seclusion
Photos show blood splattered across a small bare-walled room in a North Carolina school where a second grader repeatedly punched himself in the face in the fall of 2019, according to the child’s mom.
His mother, Michelle Staten, said her son, who has autism and other conditions, reacted as many children with disabilities would when he was confined to the seclusion room at Buckhorn Creek Elementary.
“I still feel a lot of guilt about it as a parent,” said Staten, who sent the photos to the federal government in a 2022 complaint letter. “My child was traumatized.”
Documents show that restraint and seclusion were part of the special education plan the Wake County Public School System designed for Staten’s son. Starting when he was in kindergarten in 2017, Staten said, her son was repeatedly restrained or forced to stay alone in a seclusion room.
Federal law requires school districts like Wake County to tell the U.S. Department of Education every time they physically restrain or seclude a student.
But the district, one of the largest in the nation, with nearly 160,000 children and more than 190 schools, reported for nearly a decade, starting in 2011, that it had zero incidents of restraint or seclusion, according to federal data.
Staten said she was alarmed to learn about the district’s reporting practices, and in March 2022 she sent a complaint letter to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. When the district set up her son’s special education plan, she wrote, “they said things like ‘it’s for his safety and the safety of others.’”
Further, she wrote, in his district files, “nowhere in the record was there documentation of the restraints and seclusion.”
The practice is “used and is used at often very high rates in ways that are quite damaging to students,” said Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for the Office for Civil Rights.
The Department of Education says it is meeting with schools that underreport cases of restraint and seclusion, tactics used disproportionately on students with disabilities and children of color like Staten’s son.
Lhamon called the practices “a life-or-death topic” and noted the importance of collecting accurate federal data. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced new guidance to schools in 2022, saying that, “too often, students with disabilities face harsh and exclusionary disciplinary action.”
‘Children With Bruises’
For more than a decade, school nurses, pediatricians, lawmakers, and others have warned that restraint and seclusion can cause long-lasting trauma and escalate negative behaviors. In the worst cases, children have reportedly died or suffered serious injury.
“In an ideal world, it should be banned,” said Stacey Gahagan, an attorney and civil rights expert who has successfully represented families in seclusion and restraint cases. The tactics are “being used in ways that are inappropriate. I’m seeing parents with pictures of children with bruises and children afraid to go to school.”
No federal law prohibits restraint and seclusion, leaving a patchwork of practices across states and school districts with little oversight and accountability, according to parents and advocates for people with disabilities.
Tens of thousands of restraint and seclusion cases are reported to the federal government in any given year. But those are likely undercounts, say parents and advocates for students, because the system relies on school staff and administrators to self-report. It’s a failing even the Department of Education acknowledges.
“Sometimes school communities are making a deliberate choice not to record,” Lhamon said.
The Wake County Public School System declined to answer questions about Staten’s case for this article, citing student privacy law.
A 2022 report to Congress found North Carolina schools handed lengthy suspensions or expulsions to students with disabilities at the highest rate in the nation.
The district in 2022 submitted revised restraint and seclusion data to the federal government dating to the 2015-16 school year, said Matt Dees, a spokesperson for the Wake County Public School System, where Staten’s son attended school. In a written statement, he said federal reporting rules had been confusing. “There are different guidelines for state and federal reporting, which has contributed to issues with the reporting data,” Dees said.
But parents and advocates for children with disabilities don’t buy that reasoning. “That explanation would be plausible if they reported any” cases, Gahagan said. “But they reported zero for years in the largest school district in our state.”
Hannah Russell, who is part of a network of parents and advocates in North Carolina that helps families navigate the system, said even when parents present pictures of their injured children, the school systems will say “it didn’t happen.”
In North Carolina, 91% of districts reported zero incidents of restraint and seclusion during the 2015-16 academic year, the second-highest percentage in the nation after Hawaii, a federal report found.
“This was a problem before covid,” said Russell, a former special education teacher who said one of her own children with special needs was restrained and secluded in school. “It is an astronomical problem now.”
North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction, which oversees public schools statewide, did not make officials available for interviews and did not answer written questions.
In an email, spokesperson Jeanie McDowell said only that schools receive training on restraint and seclusion reporting requirements.
Educators are generally allowed to use restraint and seclusion to protect students and others from imminent threats to safety. But critics point to cases in which children have died or suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and other injuries for minor transgressions such as failing to stay seated or being “uncooperative.”
Zero Incidents Reported
In 2019, the Government Accountability Office, which conducts research for Congress, said some school systems almost never tell the federal government about the use of restraint and seclusion. About 70% of U.S. school districts report zero incidents.
The Department of Education’s “quality control processes for data it collects from public school districts on incidents of restraint and seclusion are largely ineffective or do not exist,” a 2020 GAO report said.
Lhamon said her office is conducting investigations across the country and asking districts to correct inaccurate data. The Department of Education wants school districts to voluntarily comply with federal civil rights law protecting students with disabilities. If they don’t, officials can terminate federal financial assistance to districts or refer cases to the Department of Justice.
The Wake County Public School System settled a lawsuit last year after the district did not report any use of restraint or seclusion in the 2017-18 school year, even though a student was secluded or restrained and witnessed the practices used with other children, according to Gahagan, who represented the student’s family.
As part of the settlement, the district agreed to notify parents by the end of each school day if their child had been restrained or secluded that day.
Gahagan said transparency would increase in Wake County but that problems persist across the country. Schools sometimes keep seclusion incidents hidden from parents by calling them “timeouts” or other euphemisms, Gahagan said.
“For most parents a ‘timeout’ doesn’t mean being put in a closet,” Gahagan said. “What is the recourse for a parent? There are not a lot of checks and balances. There is not enough accountability.”
Still, Gahagan, a former teacher, expressed sympathy for educators. Schools lack money for counselors and training that would help teachers, principals, and other staff learn de-escalation techniques, which could reduce reliance on physical interventions, she said.
Jessica Ryan said that in New York City, her son, who has autism, received counseling, occupational therapy, and a classroom with a standard education teacher and a special education teacher.
But when Ryan’s family moved last year to Wake County, home to more than 1 million people and part of the famed Research Triangle region, she was told he didn’t qualify for any of those services in the district, she said. Soon, her son started getting in trouble at school. He skipped classes or was written up for disruptive behavior.
Then in March, she said, her husband got a phone call from their son, who whispered, “Come get me. I’m not safe here.”
After the 9-year-old allegedly kicked a foam soccer ball and hit a school employee, he was physically restrained by two male school staffers, according to Ryan. The incident left the boy with a bloody nose and bruises on his leg, spine, and thigh, the medical records say.
The Wake County school district did not respond to questions about the events described in the documents.
After the incident, Ryan said, her son refused to go to school. He missed the remainder of fourth grade.
“It is disgusting,” said Ryan, 39, who said she was a special education teacher in Wake County schools until she resigned in June. “Our kids are being abused.”
The district did not record the incident in PowerSchool, a software system that alerts parents to grades, test scores, attendance, and discipline, Ryan said.
In August, Ryan’s son began classes at another Wake County school. By late October, school and medical records say, he was restrained or secluded twice in less than two months.
Guy Stephens, founder and executive director of the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Maryland, said he founded the group more than four years ago after he learned his own son was afraid to go to school because he had been repeatedly restrained and secluded.
Stephens said some children subjected to the practice may start to act out violently at home, harm themselves, or fall into severe depression — impacts so adverse, he said, that they are a common part of the “school-to-prison pipeline.”
“When you go hands-on, you are putting more people in danger,” Stephens said. “These lives are being set on a path to ruin.”
In May, federal lawmakers proposed the Keeping All Students Safe Act, a bill that would make it illegal for schools receiving federal taxpayer money to seclude children or use restraint techniques that restrict breathing. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, and other supporters have said a federal law is needed, in part, because some districts have intentionally misreported numbers of restraints and seclusions.
Advocates acknowledge Congress is unlikely to pass the bill anytime soon.
School administrators, including AASA, a national association of school superintendents, have historically opposed similar legislation, saying that restraint and seclusion are sometimes needed to protect students and staff in dangerous situations.
AASA spokesperson James Minichello declined comment for this article.
Staten said she begged officials at Buckhorn Creek Elementary and the district to remove restraint and seclusion from her child’s special education plan, documents show. Officials denied the request.
“I feel like they were gaslighting me into accepting restraint and seclusion,” Staten said. “It was manipulative.”
Staten and her husband now home-school their son. She said he no longer has emotional outbursts like he did when he was in public school, because he feels safe.
“It’s like a whole new kid,” Staten said. “It sometimes feels like that was all a bad dream.”
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Saturday, November 18, 2023
Restraint, Seclusion, Discipline, Arrest
In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the educational and civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities.
- Students with disabilities served under IDEA represented 14% of total K-12 student enrollment, but 32% of students mechanically restrained, 81% of students physically restrained, and 75% of students secluded.
- Preschool children with disabilities served under IDEA represented 24% of preschool enrollment, but 34% of preschool children who received one or more out-of-school suspensions and 62% of preschool children who were expelled.
- Students with disabilities represented 17% of total K-12 student enrollment, but 24% of students who received one or more in-school suspensions, 29% of those who received one or more out-of-school suspensions, and 21% of those who received expulsions.
- Students with disabilities served under IDEA represented 14% of total K-12 student enrollment, but 22% of students referred to law enforcement and 22% of students subjected to school-related arrests.
- Students with disabilities served only under Section 504 represented 3% of total K-12 student enrollment, but 5% of students referred to law enforcement and 6% of students subjected to school-related arrests.
Saturday, October 14, 2023
Restraint in a California District
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 Folsom Cordova Unified School District was in violation of its use of restraint and seclusion when it comes to students with disabilities, a federal review found. Some of these violations include restraining students for several hours at a time in isolated rooms.
According to the school district, the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights launched a review of 20 school districts across the country, Folsom Cordova included. A statement from the school district states the review was launched after the alleged restraint death of Max Benson in 2018.
Benson was a 13-year-old student with autism who went to Guiding Hands of the Davis Joint Unified School District. Guiding Hands is a non-public school that served 140 students at the time, seven of them from Folsom Cordova.
Three staff members were indicted in connection, and Guiding Hands has since closed down.
The review from the Department of Education found that the school district overall "infrequently held Individualized Education Program meetings for students after they were restrained or secluded."
OCR resolved a compliance review of Folsom Cordova Unified School District (CA) finding that their restraint and seclusion policies and practices denied students with disabilities a free appropriate public education (FAPE). https://t.co/o168bYmeKi (1/3) pic.twitter.com/aUuiYX6lcS
— ED Civil Rights (@EDcivilrights) October 12, 2023
Thursday, December 22, 2022
Calley on Restraint and Seclusion
In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the use of restraint and seclusion, along with cases of abuse.
Brian Calley served as lieutenant governor of Michigan and has long been an advocate for people on the spectrum. At WP, he writes about restraint and seclusion:
I have a daughter with autism. When I first heard about this practice, I thought it must be rare. But it is shockingly common, having been used against tens of thousands of U.S. students in recent years.
In Michigan alone, where my family resides, restraint and seclusion was used in schools more than 94,000 times from 2017 to 2022. Because there are no penalties issued to schools for failing to report, this number is undoubtedly an undercount. An Education Department analysis covering the 2017-2018 school year (based on self-reporting) showed that more than 100,000 children across the United States had been subjected to these inhumane practices.
...
It was clear this was a major problem. So, my office developed a proposal to ban restraint and seclusion in non-emergency situations. In 2016, I signed legislation that did just that, and that required schools to report to parents and the Michigan Department of Education when the practice was used, so we could track its prevalence. The resulting data revealed a situation that was even worse than I feared.
While Michigan lawmakers tried to ban the tactics in 2016, a Free Press investigation found educators across the state secluded or restrained students nearly 94,000 times in the last five school years. The state began collecting data in the 2017-18 school year following the passage of new laws.
That means on average, more than 100 times a day, Michigan educators used what experts say are psychologically damaging practices on children. Considering most schools limited or canceled in-person classes for weeks or months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the daily usage of both seclusion and restraint are likely much higher.
Friday, July 22, 2022
Indictments in California Restraint Case
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.
A private school in Northern California and three of its staffers have been charged for involuntary manslaughter in the 2018 death of a 13-year-old autistic student, who died after being restrained for almost two hours for allegedly spitting at a classmate.
A recently convened special criminal grand jury indicted Guiding Hands, a now-closed school for students with special needs in the Sacramento suburb of El Dorado Hills, its former principal Starrane Meyers, teacher Kimberly Wohlwend and site administrator Cindy Keller, the Sacramento Bee reported Thursday.
Each was indicted on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, El Dorado County District Attorney Office spokeswoman Savannah Broddrick said.
The indictments, which remain sealed, come almost three years after county prosecutors filed manslaughter charges against the defendants in November 2019. The three educators each entered a not guilty plea at an initial arraignment that month, and then the case dragged on in court as the two sides discussed a plea deal and the defendants changed attorneys, according to the Bee and prosecutors.
“If a case isn’t moving, we can do a criminal grand jury to move it along,” said Broddrick.
Wohlwend is accused of holding 13-year-old Max Benson in a restraint position for more than one hour and 45-minutes, as other staffers allegedly helped carry out a “take down maneuver” and held down his legs, according to a separate civil lawsuit filed by the boy’s family.
Friday, March 25, 2022
Restraint in Texas
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.
Kaley Johnson reports at The Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
Staff at a Weatherford elementary school restrained a 7-year-old on the autism spectrum multiple times per day within a 53-day period, according to a lawsuit from the student’s mother. In this screen grab from surveillance footage, four staff members assist in holding the child down because, according to his mother, the child bit his own arm. Surveillance footage K.S.
The allegations of abusive restraints at Weatherford are not an anomaly, advocates say. Advocates say children at Texas schools are excessively restrained by overworked or under-trained staff members, causing physical and mental trauma. Students with disabilities are disproportionately restrained compared to the general population of students, according to a 2020 study by Disability Rights Texas, and often the restraint is in response to behaviors that stem from the child’s disability. Texas laws often protect school staff from legal repercussions for restraining children, advocates and attorneys say, leaving parents with little recourse when they feel their child is being abused at school under the guise of safety restraints.
Wednesday, December 8, 2021
Maryland County Settles Case on Seclusion and Restraint
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 Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland announced today a settlement agreement with the Frederick County Public School District in Maryland to address the discriminatory use of seclusion and restraint against students with disabilities.Cory Smith at WRC-TV:
The department’s investigation found that the school district unnecessarily and repeatedly secluded and restrained students as young as five years old in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Under the settlement, Frederick County will end the use of seclusion, overhaul its restraint practices, and train staff on use of appropriate behavioral interventions for students with disabilities.
The investigation, opened in October 2020, revealed thousands of incidents of seclusion and restraint in just two and a half school years. Although students with disabilities make up only 10.8% of students enrolled in the district, every single student the district secluded was a student with disabilities, as were 99% — all but one — of the students the district restrained. The district routinely resorted to seclusion and restraint in non-emergency situations instead of using appropriate behavior interventions tailored to individual students’ needs. The investigation found that these practices often intensified students’ distress, with some students engaging in self-harm and showing other signs of trauma while in seclusion.
...
The school district cooperated fully throughout the investigation. Under the settlement agreement, the school district will take proactive steps to ensure that its practices do not discriminate against students with disabilities. The district will, among other things:
- prohibit the use of seclusion;
- report all instances of restraint and evaluate whether they were justified;
- designate trained staff to collect and analyze restraint data and oversee the creation of appropriate behavior intervention plans;
- deliver appropriate training and resources to help schools implement the agreement;
- design and implement procedures for handling complaints about restraint;
- offer counseling and compensatory education services to students with disabilities who were subjected to the district’s discriminatory practices; and
- hire an administrator to supervise school-based staff and ensure the district’s compliance with the agreement and Title II of the ADA.
“When you look at those numbers, you can’t help but think, this is not just an issue, this is a civil rights issue,” said Guy Stephens, founder of the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint.
Stephens started the organization after his son, who has autism, was secluded and restrained in Calvert County, Maryland. The practices cause trauma and don’t make classrooms safer, he said.
“The more a kid is traumatized, the less they feel safe in school, the more likely they are to exhibit distressed behaviors. So you create this cycle where you’re targeting the same kid over and over again,” Stephens said
Saturday, September 11, 2021
The Keeping All Students Safe Act
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 Keeping All Students Safe Act (KASSA) has been introduced in both the House and Senate by Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA), Don Beyer (D-VA), and Donald McEachin (D-VA), and Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Patty Murray (D-WA). This bill would make it illegal for any school that receives federal funds to seclude a child or use dangerous restraint practices that restrict breathing, such as prone or supine restraint. KASSA would also prohibit schools from physically restraining children, except when imminent danger of serious injury to students or staff is likely. The bill would also ensure training is provided to all school personnel that is based on evidence-based proactive strategies. This harmful restraint and seclusion practices disproportionately affect students with autism and other disabilities, and/or students of color. According to the 2018 Civil Rights Data Collection, of the students restrained or secluded, 78 percent were students with disabilities. Although Black students comprise 15 percent of the student population, they represent 22 percent of students subjected to seclusion and 34 percent of students subjected to mechanical restraint.
Students with disabilities deserve the opportunity to pursue their education free from the fear of trauma and abuse. Please use this action alert to encourage your members of Congress to pass this important piece of legislation.
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Curbing Restraint in Illinois
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 Illinois legislature has put an end to the practice of isolating children in “quiet rooms” and the usage of prone physical restraint.
State Rep. Jonathan Carroll, D- Northbrook, said the practice traumatizes children.
“When you take a child who is on the autism spectrum, and that child is having some sort of an episode, you don’t lock that child in a room by themself. That is what we do to our worst criminals,” Carroll said.
In 2019, after reading a joint investigative report by ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune, Carroll became determined to put an end to the practice in Illinois schools. Solitary time-outs are used too readily as a discipline measure, Carroll said.
The authors of the Tribune-ProPublica articles reported on instances where children as young as five were left alone in small rooms for hours at a time.
“We are failing these children,” Carroll said. “There are different pathways that we can go with these kids.”
After 18 months of work, House Bill 219, received bipartisan support and passed unanimously out of the House on May 30. Gov. J.B. Pritzker told Carroll that he intends to sign the legislation when it gets to his desk. The goal of the law is to eliminate solitary time out and prone restraint within three years.
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Restraint in the Wake of the Floyd Case
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.
Mark Keierleber at The 74 Million:
Now, the brutal manner of [George] Floyd’s death is highlighting how the practice of restraining children with similar techniques remains commonplace in Minnesota schools — and in districts across the country.
Even though state policymakers have worked for years to reduce the prevalence of “physical holds” in Minnesota schools — including a 2015 ban on the face-to-the-ground “prone restraint” used against Floyd — educators employ the tactic thousands of times each year to subdue students, state and federal data show. Such restraints often come with devastating consequences for children including injury and, in rare cases, death.
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Even as the pandemic shuttered schools nationwide last spring, more than 2,800 students were subjected to more than 12,600 instances of physical restraint during the 2019-20 school year, according to a recent Minnesota Department of Education report. That’s a significant 25 percent drop from the year prior, which state education officials believe is due in large part to campus closures during COVID-19, but also recent statewide efforts to reduce educators’ reliance on the practice, training them instead how to de-escalate conflicts using preventative techniques, like positive behavioral interventions and supports.
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Nationally, more than 74,000 students were subjected to physical or mechanical restraint in the 2017-18 school year, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. That year, more than 2,400 Minnesota students were subjected to more than 11,600 instances of physical restraint. Minnesota, along with Texas and a cluster of Midwestern states, including Illinois and Iowa, were among the most frequent users of the practice, according to a 2019 analysis by ProPublica and The Chicago Tribune. In a blockbuster 2019 investigation, the news organizations found that Illinois schools frequently put students, most of them with disabilities, in padded “seclusion rooms” for reasons that violate state law, like refusing to complete schoolwork or using profanity.
The data, which is self-reported by local school districts to federal education officials, is likely a significant undercount. A 2020 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan watchdog agency, found that the Department of Education’s quality control procedures for data collection are “largely ineffective or do not exist.”
Sunday, March 14, 2021
Disability Policy in the Biden White House
In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the presidential policy on disability. Trump despised people with disabilities. President Biden is different.
[I]n a historic first, the White House has also named a disability policy director to sit on its Domestic Policy Council and ensure the government is prioritizing Americans with disabilities—including those with lingering disabilities caused by COVID-19.
“We have a lot of people that are going to be starting to identify as people with disabilities in light of COVID,” Kimberly Knackstedt, the new disability policy director, tells TIME on March 11 in her first interview since joining the White House.
Knackstedt has a long history with the disability community. She most recently served as senior disability policy advisor on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. But she started her career as a special education teacher, where she saw the systemic barriers children face to accessing education. She then went on to get a PhD in special education and policy before working on Capitol Hill. Now, she is in charge of tackling those structural barriers and ensuring equity for disabled people from arguably the most powerful disability rights position in the country.
“One of my key goals is making sure that we are putting people with disabilities at the beginning of our policy development, not as the afterthought, which I think has happened so often,” Knackstedt says.
In previous administrations, staffers who focused on disability issues fell under the offices of personnel or public engagement, and functioned more as liaisons between the disability community and the federal government. Now, the White House director of disability policy is part of the Domestic Policy Council, the body that drives much of the Administration’s domestic agenda. The council, led by Susan Rice, has been given a larger role and more staff than in the past and Knackstedt will work alongside experts on climate, health, education, racial justice and Native affairs to shape policy that impacts all parts of Americans’ lives.
Seclusion and restraint are aversive behavioral practices used in schools for control and punishment. The practices were first used in psychiatric hospitals as a means of control over patients. Eventually, the practices began being used in schools alongside other aversive and exclusionary discipline practices, including corporal punishment, suspension, and expulsion. Limited research has explored the connection between policies governing the use of seclusion and restraint and practices in schools. Grounded in organizational theory, this study analyzes the impact of policies on seclusion and restraint practice in 18 states through a multi-phase analysis. The first phase of the analysis explored trends in practices across the U.S. related to discipline, seclusion and restraint, and inclusion of students with disabilities using geo-mapping. After identifying the 18 states for further review, the second phase used a quantitative analysis to identify predictors of seclusion and restraint in each state and with pooled data of all the selected states. The final phase reviewed policies from each of the 18 states on seclusion and restraint to identify similarities and differences. The findings suggest that seclusion and restraint practices will not disappear from the repertoire of teachers simply through policies and mandatory prevention. However, gradual steps must be taken to connect stakeholders and shift from a culture of discipline and control to prevention and inclusion. Policy and research must be utilized as levers to make this change possible
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