Chalkbeat Before Colorado state lawmakers finished their yearly business this week, they took steps to ensure public schools would be better funded in the future. Colorado public schools will be required to screen students in kindergarten through third grade for...
Restraint & Seclusion
LA: New bill overhauls how La. schools treat special ed students
nola.com Louisiana schools would have to install cameras in special-education classrooms and stop putting students who have outbursts in separate “seclusion” rooms under a proposed law that advocates say provides some of the strongest protections for students with...
MN: Minnesota disabilities advocates push back on plan to restore school seclusion rooms
MPR News Disability rights activists applauded Minnesota’s move two years ago to ban the use of school seclusion rooms to discipline children in kindergarten through third grade. On Thursday, they returned to the Capitol to fight a legislative effort to lift that ban....
WA: Lawsuit accuses special ed school districts of neglect and abuse
Seattle Times Two Tacoma-area families are suing the owner of a now-shuttered private special education school, alleging that school staff abused and neglected vulnerable students. The Northwest School of Innovative Learning was Washington’s largest publicly funded...
WI: Dept. of Public Instruction: State superintendent calls for special education reimbursement increase, expanded mental health training amid rising incidents of seclusion and restraint
WisPolitics State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly today called for increasing the special education rate and expanding mental health training programs available to Wisconsin schools as part of the 2025-27 biennial budget. The message comes as the Wisconsin Department...
MA: State education board addresses timeouts, seclusion in schools
WBUR News The state education board advanced regulations Tuesday to further restrict controversial "timeout" and seclusion policies in schools, the next step in a years-long effort to reduce the use of the practices. There's been growing national attention on...
MN: Minnesota Bills Would Roll Back Bans on Seclusion and Expulsion for K-3 Students
The 74 Two years ago, Minnesota outlawed most suspensions and all disciplinary seclusion of very young pupils in schools. An outgrowth of an effort to curb police abuses in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, it was a change that advocates for children with...
UT: Bill that would have banned seclusion in Utah schools now allows it again
FOX news 13 When Stephanie Merrill read the first substitute of a bill that would ban seclusion in Utah schools, she was “completely overjoyed.” “It took me totally by surprise,” added her husband, Craig Merrill, in a recent interview with FOX 13 News. “I thought,...
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...
