If Not Seclusion and Restraint
Then What? A Better Way Forward for Students and Educators
This article is for educators with questions about our work to reduce the use of restraints and eliminate seclusion. You are not alone if your first reaction to criticism of restraint and seclusion is, “You don’t understand the kids we support,” or, “What do you expect us to do when a child kicks us?” Many educators arrive at “If not seclusion and restraint, then what?” from a place of exhaustion, moral injury, and fear. This article is written for you, not to shame you or blame you, but to invite you to consider something that can result in better outcomes for you and your students. I encourage you to read this with genuine curiosity and an open mind.
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Our mission is to inform changes in policy and practice to reduce and eliminate the use of punitive discipline and outdated behavioral management approaches and end the school-to-prison pipeline.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, administrators, occupational therapists, social workers, school counselors, psychologists, and other related professionals.
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Gaslighting: How School districts justify the use of restraint and seclusion
Today’s guest author is Robin Roscigno. Robin Roscigno is a scholar/practicioner specializing in education for Neurodivergent children. She is a PhD candidate at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Education and consults with school districts and parents on a range of topics. Most recently, Robin was awarded the Irving K. Zola Award for Emerging Scholar in Disabiliy…
Time to read:
7–10 minutes -
How Seclusion and Restraint came to be Outlawed in New Zealand
Once upon a time a child was locked in a closet in a Miramar school in the Capital, Wellington, of a small realm, New Zealand at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The child said “I’ll be good, I’ll be good”, but, alas, to no avail. A group of 3,000 autistics, students, parents, educational professionals,…
Time to read:
2–3 minutes -
Finding your voice and finding your people
My experience with the special needs community started with volunteer work when I was sixteen. I started working for a company that helped special needs children and their families deal with the difficulties of navigating the school system. I left that work for a while, and as it turns out my path led me to…
Time to read:
3–4 minutes -
The Everyday Peace Initiative: Institutional Violence
When I was writing up my doctoral thesis in Peace and Conflict Studies, I became a mother for the first time. Parenting a very special neurodiverse child taught me more about peace and conflict than any book, and it led me to design the award-winning ‘The Everyday Peace Toolkit Project’, where ‘peace’ is not an…
Time to read:
6–9 minutes -
How Collaborative & Proactive Solutions has helped our family
I’ve considered our parenting style “middle of the road” since our two children were born. We read “What to Expect when you’re Expecting,” sleep books, toddler books, and so on. We never spanked. We sent kids to their rooms for timeouts, created behavior charts, and counted to three. We used “grandma’s rule” – you can…
Time to read:
7–10 minutes -
End Prone Restraint, Embrace Alternatives for Illinois Public School Students
From August 2017 to December 2018, Illinois public school districts documented over 15,000 physical restraints with a quarter of those beginning with no documented safety reason. In the 50,000 pages of documentation of seclusion and restraint incidents in Illinois public schools, there are records of many students saying they can’t breathe and are being hurt…
Time to read:
8–12 minutes
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