Idaho needs new standards on restraint, seclusion

This editorial was published by the Idaho Statesman in Boise.

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The stories are heartbreaking and frightening. Young students being locked in a room, alone, sometimes for hours. A child with Down syndrome coming home with bruises after being restrained at school. Another child with bruises and scratches. One parent reported her son was secluded on a daily basis.

The stories are from parents who say their children were either restrained or secluded while at school. This practice at school should be rare and used as a last resort, as outlined by federal guidelines. Unfortunately, just based on anecdotes uncovered by Idaho Statesman reporter Becca Savransky, restraint and seclusion are being used too quickly, too routinely and too often as a method of discipline in Idaho.

The U.S. Department of Education defines restraint as a restriction on a student’s ability to “freely move” their torso, arms, legs or head, according to Savransky’s reporting. Seclusion is when a student is “involuntarily” put in a room or area alone and unable to leave, and a mechanical restraint, which many districts in Idaho have banned in their policies except when used by law enforcement, is when a “device or equipment” is used to restrict a student’s movement, she wrote.

We recognize that some students could become a danger to themselves and others in the classroom, and that restraining or secluding that student may be necessary. However, Idaho has left it up to individual districts to set their own policies — or in at least one district, no policy at all other than “reasonable use of force.”

Idaho needs a uniform, standardized, statewide policy on the use of restraint and seclusion based on best practices and expert study. A statewide system of accountability should set the rules, expectations and boundaries for all districts’ use of restraint or seclusion. Idaho also needs a way to monitor the use of restraint and seclusion to ensure that the methods are used properly, safely and as a last resort.

Teachers and staff need more training on when to use — and not use — such techniques, and how to use them. They should also be trained in de-escalation methods other than restraint and seclusion.

Finally, parents should be notified immediately when restraint or seclusion is used on their child. Several parents told the Statesman that they didn’t find out their children were restrained or secluded until months or years later. Some learned about what happened only when they noticed a change in their child’s behavior. That’s unacceptable.

Idaho had an opportunity to address this issue more than 10 years ago but failed to pass anything. To address restraint and seclusion, the Idaho State Department of Education in 2010 created a task force that came up with a proposed rule change. The draft rule stated restraint and seclusion should be used only in “a situation in which a student’s behavior poses a believable and real threat of imminent, serious physical harm to the student or others.”

Under the rule, every school district would have been directed to develop a policy on the use of restraint and seclusion and review that policy annually, according to Savransky’s reporting. It also required training for staff members who use restraint and seclusion, and outlined specific reporting requirements, she reported.

Unfortunately, that rule never made it to state lawmakers and hasn’t come up since. Meanwhile, school districts across the state run the risk of injury, not only to students but to teachers and aides, without proper training or clear guidelines for the practice of restraint or seclusion. The 2010 board documents said research showed restraint and seclusion “carry significant risk of injury or harm not only to the students who are subjected to them, but also to the school staff who must implement them.”

The state Department of Education and the Idaho State Board of Education should revive the effort started in 2010 to implement a statewide policy, with the goal of making it clear that such techniques should be used only as a last resort, when someone is at risk of imminent danger.

With a new superintendent of public instruction being elected in November, the state board has a prime opportunity to work with the new superintendent to make this a reality. The use of restraint and seclusion in other states has led to deaths. We don’t want Idaho to fall into that tragic category.