A new report by Disability Rights Wisconsin, Wisconsin Family Ties and Wisconsin FACETS finds that children in Wisconsin schools continue to be subjected to seclusion and restraints despite the passage of a state law in 2012 that regulates these practices.
Here is a quote from the summary:
The 2016 report details how families continue to report instances in which children, even those as young as five, are being secluded and restrained repeatedly, sometimes daily. The report gives data from each Wisconsin school district that responded to the records request, showing a total of 20,131 incidents of seclusion and restraint in the 2013/14 school year, involving 3,585 students overall, 80% of whom were students with disabilities.
“This continues to be a serious issue. We work with families whose children have suffered emotional and physical injury due to seclusion and restraint,” says Monica Murphy, managing attorney at Disability Rights Wisconsin. “While the passage of Act 125 was a good step, the data is still disturbing.”
The report highlights great discrepancy in how districts across the state report their data; continued confusion on the definitions of seclusion and restraint; significant concerns regarding the role of law enforcement officers in restraining students; and a lack of parent notification when these practices are occurring.
You may read the entire 88 page report here. A summary is available on the DRW website.
We have had many previous posts on seclusion and restraint issues. Here is one on the jaw-dropping study in 2009. Here is our post on the ill-fated Keep All Children Safe Act.
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