Our mission is to inform changes in policy and practice to reduce and eliminate the use of punitive discipline and outdated behavioral management approaches and end the school-to-prison pipeline.
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.
Latest Stories
Support our Documentary: Restrained and Secluded in the Schoolhouse
In this full-length documentary film, we plan to raise awareness about the use of restraint and seclusion in schools nationwide. We want the audience to understand the harm of using these aversive techniques. Children, teachers, and staff are traumatized and injured, and far too many children have died due to restraint and seclusion. There is a better way to support our students, teachers, and staff.
Support our mission this Giving Tuesday
This Giving Tuesday, there are several ways you can support the work of the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint. 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.
Isolated in Vermont: Trauma lasts a lifetime
I want to preface this by explaining that I only write this anonymously because I don’t want colleges or future employers to look my name up and read about my childhood trauma. I attended kindergarten through 4th grade in a Vermont Public School. I am now in High School. Last year a letter was written addressing parents about restraint and seclusion policies in the Harwood Unified Union School District. I was one of those students affected by those policies.
New Hanover County, You need to ban seclusion not rooms
About 18 months ago, parents and advocates began to raise awareness about the use of seclusion in New Hanover County public schools. Over time more parents and advocates joined the effort to reduce the use of physical restraint and eliminate the use of seclusion in New Hanover County schools. Community members and advocates spoke at the Board of Education meetings and shared concerns. The issue gained the attention of the local media, who wrote several stories about the subject.
A mother tells Round Rock ISD it is time to end the systemic culture of abuse
What follows is the written transcript of public comment delivered to the Round Rock, Texas, Independent School District school board by Tatiana Alfano. Tatiana’s son Quintin was thrown into a “cool down” room by a school administrator.
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