Restraint & Seclusion
Last Updated February 6, 2025
FEDERAL NEWS AND LEGISLATION
From Secretary Cardona, January 8, 2025
As education leaders, we have a collective responsibility to ensure that all children are educated in learning environments that are safe, supportive, and responsive to their needs. We must keep this responsibility in mind when considering the practices of restraint and seclusion in schools. The U.S. Department of Education (Department) remains concerned that children continue to be subjected to restraint and seclusion practices even though these practices are harmful to children and despite the lack of evidence that these practices are effective strategies to respond to a child’s behavior or that these practices reduce the occurrence of behaviors that interfere with learning. The use of restraint and seclusion practices is inconsistent with our shared goal to ensure every child is treated with dignity and free from abuse. The most recent publicly available data shows that more than 50,000 public school students were restrained or secluded in public schools during the 2020-2021 school year.i
Restraint and seclusion practices can have a lasting and negative impact on children. There is ample evidence of significant harms to students due to these practices, including serious physical injury, emotional trauma, and even death.ii Schools and early childhood programs should do everything possible to align their practices to ensure all children are educated in learning environments that are safe, supportive, and responsive to their unique needs.
Instead of relying on reactive restraint and seclusion practices, it is critical for educators to be given opportunities to learn about and implement positive, proactive practices in schools and early childhood programs and how to effectively support and respond to students’ behavioral needs. As described in previous guidance from the Department, this involves using practices that provide a behavioral framework to support the social, emotional, physical, and mental health needs of students,iii including through the use of multi-tier systems of supports with individualized, targeted, and effective interventions for high-need students. Schools and early childhood programs should implement evidence-based practicesiv to foster climates of inclusion, safety, and belonging as an alternative to exclusionary discipline and restraint and seclusion practices.v
I commend those states and districts that have prohibited the use of seclusion and limited the use of restraint in schools and early childhood programs, and those districts and programs that have committed to implementing evidence-based, responsive, and inclusive practices to support student behavior. The rejection of seclusion and the shift away from reliance on restraint in our Nation’s schools and early childhood programs is long overdue. We must equip educators and early childhood providers with the positive, proactive, and evidence-based tools and resources to meet the needs of all students. I encourage all States that have not yet done so to invest in providing educators with evidence-based, positive behavior support alternatives that support students and prevent the need to use restraint and seclusion practices, which can be harmful.
The Department has invested $1 billion through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act Stronger Connections Grant program for states to award subgrants to high-need local educational agencies to establish safer, healthier, and more inclusive learning environments. The Department also published a guide for schools on how to implement positive, proactive approaches for supporting children with disabilities as an alternative to seclusion and restraint practices and a guide to implement functional behavioral assessments for any student whose behavior interferes with learning. In addition, the Department continues to provide resources to ensure educators and early childhood providers are prepared to respond effectively to students’ behavior needs.vi School and early childhood program leaders can both keep their communities-including children and staff-safe while ensuring every child is included, supported, and treated fairly. Our children are depending on us, and the time to act is now.
Sincerely,
Miguel A. Cardona, Ed.D.
U.S. Secretary of Education
iSee: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 2020-21 Civil Rights Data Collection: A First Look: Students’ Access to Educational Opportunities in U.S. Public Schools, www2.ed.gov/about/offices/
iiGovernment Accountability Office, Seclusion and Restraints: Selected Cases of Death and Abuse and Public and Private Schools and Treatment Centers. GAO-09-719T. www.gao.gov/assets/gao-09-
iii U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development. Guiding Principles for Creating Safe, Inclusive, and Fair School Climates. March 2023. Available at: www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/
iv See: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development. Guiding Principles for Creating Safe, Inclusive, and Fair School Climates. March 2023. Available at: www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/
v See: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. Positive, Proactive Approaches to Supporting Children with Disabilities: A Guide for Stakeholders. July 2022. Available at: sites.ed.gov/idea/files/…. See also: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services & Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. See also: Using Functional Behavioral Assessments to Create Supportive Learning Environments. November 2024. Available at: sites.ed.gov/idea/files/….
vi Resources are available through several Department-funded technical assistance centers, including the National Center on Intensive Intervention, the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations, and the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments.
STATE NEWS AND LEGISLATION
CO: U.S. Department of Justice investigates reported “seclusion and restraint” used against disabled Colorado students | CBS Colorado
A sweeping federal investigation into the Douglas County School District has hundreds of unearthed allegations of systemic discrimination and mistreatment, with families and advocates calling for urgent reform to protect students from racial harassment and harmful practices like “seclusion” and “restraint.” CBS News Colorado is learning more about the complaints that prompted a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the Douglas County School District. Investigators from the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department were in Colorado last week, looking into complaints against DCSD “regarding potential discrimination, harassment, or bullying on the basis of race, national origin, religion, or disability, and the district’s use of seclusion and restraint against students with disabilities,” the Justice Department said in an email to parents.
CT: Opinion: It’s Time To End Restraint And Seclusion In Schools | CT News Junkie
At the Center for Children’s Advocacy, we continue to hear from families concerned about children with disabilities who are injured or traumatized in school after being subjected to physical force and isolation. As the former state Child Advocate, I have seen evidence of seclusion spaces that consist of little more than a closet or even a padded cell. Most of the children subject to restraint and seclusion in our state are elementary school age, usually boys, often with developmental disabilities, typically children of color. I have read numerous investigations into concerning incidents of restraint of children, including those leading to injury, where adults concluded that the staff response to the child’s “behavior” was understandable, and that injury was unavoidable, and therefore no concerns need be addressed. These findings are typical, and they are usually wrong.