Tag: Seclusion
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What Are Your State’s Laws on Physical Restraint and Seclusion?
What does your state allow when it comes to physically restraining or secluding a child at school? What practices are prohibited? When must a school notify a parent, and what information must be documented after an incident? These are questions families should be able to answer without spending hours searching government websites and trying to…
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The Door Opened but the Trauma Followed: My Life After Restraint, Seclusion and Segregation
My name is Chris Hall. I am an autistic adult from Braintree, Massachusetts. Over the years, I have worked with computers, bicycles, and accessible transportation while trying to create a life and a way of working that fit my abilities. Chris Hall with two RadBurro cargo e-bikes used for transportation, mobile repair work, and community…
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What Happens After the Restraint? The Part We Rarely Talk About
I have spent a lot of time thinking about what happens before a restraint. What happened in the minutes leading up to it? What did the student signal? What changed in the environment? What demands were placed on them? What did the adults do? What warning signs did we miss? But the more I think…
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What Happens Before the Restraint? The 10 Minutes We Keep Ignoring
When a student is placed in a restraint or secluded, the incident report often begins at the moment the crisis becomes impossible for adults to ignore. The student “became aggressive.” The student “refused to comply.” The student “escalated.” The student “became a danger to self or others.” Then comes the intervention: staff responded, the student…
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Leveling the Playing Field in School Safety: National Data Reveal Who Is Most Harmed by Restraint, Seclusion, and Corporal Punishment
We want to share with you an honors thesis project by former Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint intern Lauren Sukhu. The thesis offers powerful, data‑driven evidence that restraint, seclusion, and corporal punishment in U.S. public schools are not used equally; they fall most heavily on students with disabilities, Black students, students of two or more…
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If Not Seclusion and Restraint, Then What? A Better Way Forward for Students and Educators
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.…
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Missouri’s Wake‑Up Call: After the DOJ’s Findings, It’s Time to Ban Seclusion in All Schools
On February 23, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released its findings in a sweeping investigation of the Special School District of St. Louis County (SSD). DOJ concluded that SSD’s use of seclusion and restraint violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, describing “shocking overuse” of these practices and a pattern of…
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When Helping Hurts: How Broken Systems Turn Compassion into Defense
We recently shared the link to a Seattle Times investigation that found staff in medical settings have used spit hoods over the past decade to subdue or control psychiatric patients and risk psychological distress, suffocation, and even death in the process. The comments poured in. Many came from healthcare workers describing being bitten, kicked, and…
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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…
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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…