Recent legislation proposed in Congress would significantly decrease the use of physical restraint in public schools, a controversial approach to behavior modification that disproportionately targets children with disabilities. 

The Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act was introduced on Dec. 9, 2009 in the House by Rep. George Miller (D-Cali) and in the Senate by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT).  It would make restraint a last resort, to be used only in situations in which a student’s actions constitute an immediate safety threat, and would also require restraint training for teachers and parental notification whenever restraint is used.

A report from the Office of Government Accountability (GAO) released in May revealed hundreds of allegations of abusive restraint--some fatal--in which students were “pinned to the floor, handcuffed, locked in closets and subjected to other acts of violence.”  

In one case in a Texas public school, a 300-pound teacher killed a child while pinning him to the ground.  No criminal charges were filed and the man is now a teacher in Virginia. 

In an incident in New York, a student died after an aide sat on top of him because he was being disruptive while riding in a van.

Though verified national figures on restraint incidents are not available, a recent investigation by the Texas Tribune revealed that in Texas restraint is used approximately 100 times a day in public school settings.

“In some cases, the abuses these kids are suffering are nothing short of torture inflicted at the hands of the very staff we entrust with their safety, “said Representative Miller, who is the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and requested the GAO’s investigation.

Currently, there are no federal regulations governing restraint and teachers are bound only by state laws, which disability advocates say are inconsistent and ineffectual.

The Fight Against Restraint
Though a minority of educators and psychologists still believe restraint and seclusion have therapeutic value, it has been condemned by most of the disability community.

"There is no therapeutic benefit from restraint and seclusion," said Barb Trader, executive director of TASH, an organization that supports the legislation "It doesn't attribute anything to learning and it damages the student-teacher relationship."

In 1998, a groundbreaking investigative series by the Hartford Courant reported there had been 142 deaths due to restraint in private mental hospitals over the last decade, and estimated that hundreds more had gone unreported.

The series not only brought awareness of the issue, but inspired the passage of the Children's Health Act of 2000, which protected students from restraint in mental health facilities.  However, the legislation did not protect students in public schools.

The IDEA Act, a federal statute which regulates many facets of public education for children with disabilities, requires students to be educated in the least "restrictive setting," but doesn't explicitly prohibit restraint or seclusion.

The lack of clarity in federal policy was made evident when the Greenfield School District in Wisconsin recently announced that it would spend $121,000 in federal stimulus funds on soundproof seclusion rooms for special needs students, a decision Trader said is “directly in conflict of what stimulus funds should be used for.”

Most parents with children with disabilities agree. 

Jean Bowden, who crusaded for a Massachusetts state law to prohibit restraint in public schools after her autistic daughter was pinned to the ground by teachers on videotape in 1998, said that pressure and activism from parents with children with disabilities is one reason the federal law has finally been introduced.

Bowden said she tried to enact change at a federal level in 1998, but was told the matter should be handled by states. She believes that the negative information about restraint and seclusion highlighted over the last decade has created a consensus amongst parents with disabilities that further regulations need to be passed.

"Parents today are savvy.  They're angry, they compare notes and they aren't going to stand for this," she said.