Keeping All Students Safe
It is time to protect our most vulnerable students
The reintroduction of the Keeping All Students Safe Act marks a pivotal moment in our fight to end harmful seclusion and restraint practices in schools nationwide. This bill would help to create safer schools for students, teachers, and staff by banning dangerous mechanical, chemical, and life-threatening restraints while prohibiting seclusion outright in federally funded schools. The Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint supports this critical legislation to improve outcomes for students, teachers and staff.
Our Mission
Our mission is to inform changes in policy and practice to reduce and eliminate the use of punitive discipline and outdated behavioral management approaches and end the school-to-prison pipeline. (Learn more about our mission)
Restraint and Seclusion in Schools: What Parents and Caregivers Need to Know
We have just launched a new online course to help parents and caregivers who may be navigating issues related to the use of restraint and seclusion in schools. In this course, we discuss restraint and seclusion, strategies used in many schools worldwide. We address the risks of restraint and seclusion and discuss alternatives. We’ll discuss extensively what to do if your child is restrained or secluded. Learn more about the new course on our online training portal.
Below is a short excerpt from the course.
About seclusion and restraint
Restraint and seclusion are crisis management strategies that are used in many schools across the nation and the world. Physical Restraint is exactly what it sounds like; it is a personal restriction that immobilizes or reduces the ability of a student to move his or her torso, arms, legs, or head freely. Seclusion is the involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room or area from which the student is physically prevented from leaving. These interventions are dangerous and have led to serious injuries and even death in students, teachers, and staff.
According to federal guidance, restraint and/or seclusion should never be used except in situations where a child’s behavior poses an imminent danger of serious physical harm to self or others, and restraint and seclusion should be avoided to the greatest extent possible without endangering the safety of students and staff.
News and Stories
Read some of our latest news and stories. We publish stories every week from parents, caregivers, self-advocates, teachers, adminstrators, occupaytional therapist, social workers, school counselors, pyschologist and other related professionals.
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When Curiosity Isn’t Enough: A Mother’s Story of Mats, Silence, and a Seven-Year-Old in Crisis
My seven-year-old, a struggling learner, having a no-good, very bad, horrible day, asked to talk to their mom. The Director of Student Services decided not to allow it. What followed? A seven-year-old was surrounded by large folding mats in a temporary pen for nearly 30 minutes. A few weeks after my child was secluded, news…
Time to read:
1–2 minutes -
Pain is Information: My Awakening
A few years ago, when I was 40 years old, I broke a tooth below the gumline and needed to have it extracted. My options were to wait a month and have the procedure done at my regular clinic, or go to an emergency clinic and have it done the same day. I chose the…
Time to read:
6–9 minutes -
Together, We Can End Restraint and Seclusion: Why Your Support Matters Now More Than Ever
Every child deserves to feel safe, supported, and understood in school. Yet, across the country, children, especially those with disabilities, trauma histories, or neurodivergent identities, are still being restrained, secluded, and subjected to punitive and exclusionary discipline. These practices don’t teach; they harm. They fracture trust, deepen fear, and too often set children on a…
Time to read:
2–3 minutes -
Counting the Costs: How School Trauma Impacts the Entire Family
When we discuss school trauma, we often confine it to the child, a single incident or outburst filed away. Yet, this trauma rarely stays contained. It spreads, infiltrating the family’s entire world: the home, the marriage, the siblings, the finances, and the very identity of the parents. I learned this painful truth firsthand. My autistic…
Time to read:
3–4 minutes -
Sweet Support: Keystone RV Hosts Cookie Walk to Benefit AASR
The Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint is thrilled to share a heartwarming example of community generosity from our friends at Keystone RV in Indiana. On Friday, December 12th, employees from the company’s customer service department held a Cookie Walk fundraiser to support our mission—and it was a huge success! With an incredible display of teamwork…
Time to read:
1–2 minutes -
Keeping All Students Safe Act Reintroduced: It’s Time to End the Use of Seclusion in Schools
The Keeping All Students Safe Act (KASSA) has been reintroduced in the 119th Congress by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Representative Don Beyer (D-VA), Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA), and Representative Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ). This bill aims to prohibit seclusion, mechanical…
Time to read:
3–4 minutes
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Research
Read our latest research articles and news.
Make a Donation
Your contribution is more than just a donation; it helps us create safer schools for students, teachers, and staff. Your donation helps us promote a trauma-informed, neuroscience-aligned, relationship-driven approach to supporting all children. We can and must do better for our children.
