Florida district agrees to improve student restraint policies

Listen to the article
4 min.

This sound is created automatically. Please let us know if you have any feedback.

Florida school district agreed evaluate his use of restraints monthly, along with other improvements, after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found “very high” rates of restraint for students with disabilities in the St. Johns County School District, OCR said Monday.

An investigation launched in 2019 found that one student was restrained 126 times in 2017-18 and 2018-19, OCR found over two school years. In the 2018-19 school year alone, the district detained 153 students a total of 1,711 times, according to OCR. In one case, a student was held in custody for almost six hours.

Restraint incidents in 2018-19 occurred in 23 of the district’s 40 schools. But the majority of students subject to restrictions (76%) attended one of six schools, and staff at those schools enforced 95% of the restrictions districtwide. Five of these schools were elementary schools with separate classes for students whose disabilities affected their behavior.

OCR’s investigation identified concerns about the provision of free appropriate public education, or FAPE, under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. However, St. John’s has “dramatically reduced” its use. restrictions through another emergency response method during an OCR investigation.

The county also “has clear and detailed policies prohibiting the use of seclusion and limiting restrictions to emergency situations only,” OCR said.

“St. The Jones County School District is committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure that the civil rights of students with disabilities are protected when the district places them in restraints, as well as necessary remedial action for those students the district has restricted in the past,” said Katherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for affairs. civil rights, in a statement.

The agreement between the District and OCR, which governs the federal agency’s compliance review, includes St. John’s obligations to:

• Involve IEP or Section 504 teams to determine whether current interventions and supports are sufficient for students who were restricted in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years, whether changes are necessary, and whether students should receive compensatory services for denial in providing FAPE or other educational services missed due to restrictions.
• During the monitoring period, which will last at least the 2024-25 school year, Review all incidents involving student restraint to determine whether the actions are consistent with district procedures, written instructions, and appropriate training.
• Provide training to teachers, administrators, and any personnel who work with students who may be subject to restraints or who are certified to use student restraints.
• Develop protocols for special education record keeping and accurate reporting.

Denise Marshall, CEO of the Parent Advocate Council, a disability rights nonprofit, said in an email that the organizationCommends OCR for “continuing to hold school districts accountable for actions that harm and abuse children with disabilities.”

COPAA was a supporter Keeping Every Student Safe Actproposed federal legislation that would ban student seclusion and limit restrictions.

During the 2020-21 school year, when many schools were operating remotely or in hybrid mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 28,390 students with disabilities were subject to school violence, according to OCR’s Civil Rights Data Compendium. In the 2017-18 school year, 57,191 students were subject to restrictions.

Nationally, OCR had 162 cases of disability discrimination related to restraint and seclusion in the K-12 program as of Monday, according to a list the office posted on its website.