Debate Begins on "Preventing Harmful Restraints and Seclusion in Schools Act"
This week the House will debate the “Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act,” H.R. 4247. The Act is designed to prevent physical and psychological trauma which may result from the use of physical restraint and seclusion as a means to discipline students. According to the House Committee on Education and Labor, “a recent investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found hundreds of allegations that children have been abused, and some even died, as a result of misuses of restraint and seclusion in public and private schools, often at the hands of untrained staff.”
The Act would apply to public and private schools which receive federal funding, and would impose an absolute prohibition against the use of mechanical and chemical restraints, as well as physical restraints which restrict breathing. Use of other physical restraints, as well as use of seclusion, would also be prohibited, except where the student’s behavior poses a risk to students or faculty. Where such restraints or seclusion could be used on students posing such a risk, these methods would only be available if no less restrictive means of discipline would protect students and faculty, and further would require appropriate monitoring.
The Act would also prohibit the inclusion of physical restraint or seclusion into a child’s Individual Education Program (“IEP”). For further consideration of how the Act might affect special education law in particular, consult the Special Education Law Blog.
The Act contemplates further regulations by the Department of Education, and calls upon state and local agencies, as well as schools, to establish certain training and policies designed to ensure implementation of the Act and to provide for reporting to parents promptly after use of any approved restraint or seclusion.
The Act has received widespread support from a variety of organizations, including the National School Boards Association. However, some have expressed concern that the Act encroaches upon areas of education law traditionally handled at the state and local level.
