On Thursday, Alexa Posny, the US Department of Education's top special education official, said that, by next fall, her office will issue guidelines to school districts about the use of restraints, seclusion and other aversive procedures in US public schools. Currently, regulation of the use of such procedures has been left to local and state supervision, with troubling and sometimes tragic results.
A bill to protect school children from abusive restraint, seclusion and aversive interventions in public schools remains stalled in Congress. The bill was passed on March 3, 2010 by the U.S. House of Representatives but did not come up for consideration in the Senate. In April some congressmen again introduced a
bill, HR 1381, in the House, but it has yet to be considered. Please urge your representatives to support the
bill to keep our children safe in school.
We the undersigned urge you to support H.R. 1381, the Keeping All Students Safe Act.
On Thursday, Alexa Posny, the US Department of Education's top special education official, said that, by next fall, her office will issue guidelines to school districts about the use of restraints, seclusion and other aversive procedures in US public schools. Currently, regulation of the use of such procedures has been left to local and state supervision, with troubling and sometimes tragic results.
In 2002, 14-year-old Cedric Price of Killeen, Texas, suffocated while his middle school teacher put him in a "therapeutic floor hold" to "keep him from struggling during a disagreement over lunch."
In 2001, Paige Gaydos, who is autistic, was put into a face-down prone restraint by a teacher in Cupertino, California. Her parents sued the Cupertino School District and were awarded $700,000 by a federal jury; they settled for $260,000, to avoid an appeal.
A bill to protect school children from abusive restraint, seclusion and aversive interventions in public schools remains stalled in Congress. The bill was passed on March 3, 2010 by the U.S. House of Representatives but did not come up for consideration in the Senate. In April some congressmen again introduced the
bill, HR 1381, in the House, but it has yet to be considered. We urge you to support this important legislation and see that it passes the House of Representatives and then is considered in the Senate.
Abusive practices like restraint and seclusion are too often used on students with disabilities, who often struggle to communicate what happens to them. Please support H.R. 1381 and make sure that students with disabilities and all students in US public schools are safe.
