Seclusion and Restraint: America's Children with Disabilities in Crisis

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by Marcie Lipsitt
Tuesday, January 27, 2009

No child with or without a disability should suffer emotional or physical abuse, let alone die at the hands of their teachers and education personnel.  The National Disability Rights Network has only crystallized this crisis in America's schools and they are the first to recognize the reports from their Protection and Advocacy Agencies is only the "tip of the iceberg."  There are more than 6.5 million students with "Individual Education Plans" (IEPs) and more with Section 504s (especially students with AD/HD) that are watching their educational lives sink on an educational version of the Titanic.  IDEA (originally, EHA) has barely open the school door to equitable, meaningful and measurable, social, emotional and academic learning for students with disabilities.  The percentage of these students going on to post-secondary education and the work force is egregious enough...the reality that thousands are suffering and dying from physical abuse is unconscionable and must stop.  NDRN has documented "Public Policy Recommendations" for the "Obama Administration, Congress, State Legislatures and Boards of Education and Local School Districts" that include:

• Banning the use of seclusion and all forms of restraint in our public and private schools (including charter schools and public school academies).
• Requiring the use of evidence based positive behavioral supports and best practices.
• Extensive training for all education personnel in the use of positive behavioral interventions and crisis reduction.
• Thorough background checks for all school personnel and comparing databases for individuals that have lost their licenses or been convicted of abuse or neglect in any setting.
• The Obama Administration must immediately support and Congress must propose and include (but not limited to) new rules in IDEA 2004 and NCLB that ban seclusion and all forms of restraint and require the use of Functional Behavior Assessments and  Behavior Intervention Plans; along with evidence based behavioral interventions
• Congress must expand the authority of our Protection and Advocacy agencies (and increase their funding) to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect in schools.

For more than thirty years, a meaningful "Free Appropriate Public Education" has been a broken promise to America's children with disabilities.  In 2009 we must answer this call to action.  "We the People" must ensure that President Obama and Congress stop the emotional and physical abuse of our students with disabilities (and without) and reauthorize NCLB and IDEA 2004 with airtight statutes, rules and regulations that finally allow millions of children to flourish in their schools and go on to post secondary education, vocational training and the global workforce.  Everyone must read "School is Not Supposed to Hurt: Investigative Report on Abusive Restraint and Seclusion in Schools", published and released, January 2009 by the National Disability Rights Network.  Bring your tissue and then use your outrage and anger in an intensely, relentless educated manner for America's children with disabilities.  Children with disabilities must no longer be academically, emotionally or physically, disabled by their schools or our state and federal government.