Rebecca Hampton

ED 147
Landmark Case Law Summary
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College
September 6, 2014

The complaint number 11-14-1054 is filed by Ms. Coilfi, Mr. Gourley, and Mr.
Reichhardt. These participants have filed the claim with the District of Columbia Office for Civil
Rights within the U.S Department of Education. The alleged complaint is again the Prince
William County Schools which has a program called the Positive Attitude and Commitment to
Education East/West Program (PACE). The issue that is being regarded throughout the case is the
alleged complaint about students with disabilities being discriminated by the improper use of
seclusion practices and improper restraints. The second part of the complaint is that
discrimination is impacting the African American and Hispanic population in the program which
is also complained to be disproportionately represented in the Positive Attitude and Commitment
to Education Program.
These complaints fall under three types of laws which is why the District of Columbia
Office of Civil Rights is investigating the complaint. The laws include a Section 504 of
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, specifically the 34 C.F.R Part 104, the Title II of the Americans with
Disabilities Act of 1990 28 C.F.R Part 35 and the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 34
C.F.R. Part 100. These laws are prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disabilities in
programs that receive free federal assistance, discrimination against qualified individuals with
disabilities by public entities and the discrimination of the basis of race, color, or national origin
on education programs receiving financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education.
With these laws being allegedly broken, the Office for Civil Rights took the actions of
completing onsite visits with the Positive Attitude and Commitment to Education Program. They
reviewed the incidents which involved restraints and seclusion practices over three semesters as

well as conducted interviews with those in the Education Program and Prince William Count
Schools.
The background of the case is the Positive Attitude and Commitment to Education
East/West Program is for students who are diagnosed with serious emotional and behavioral
problems. This program has implemented the use of a school wide behavior system with the use
of the Re-Orientation area. The Re-Orientation area is a place outside of their general classroom
which provides students with a place to maintain their behaviors. A statement however did state
that it is not considered being a punishment by the behavior system. This area is a place to deescalate behaviors when not following directions, being disruptive during class or have been
restrained by the personnel before going back to their own classroom. The program described the
Re-Orientation room as not seclusion because students are not locked in or left alone. It is not a
place, but a process as the program staff at PACE East explained. Students may not exit the area
until a process is completed by the PACE team. The time that a student may spend in the area is
from ten minutes to several hours. The behavioral intervention that a student may go through
while being in the Re-Orientation area involves downtime, counseling or the use of physical
restraints.
The interviews that were observed from the Office for Civil Rights proved that students
are not receiving access to the curriculum when being in the Re-Orientation area. Also, the PACE
program has several types of restraints that are used for their students. These are called the
primary restraint techniques which are used by teachers, staff and counselors. Personnel who
participated in the restraints have training which involves knowing the policies, and concerns of
the students. The seclusion area which students may be placed during the PACE program is
separate of the Re-Orientation area. This area is where students are alone, have a padded area,

and have no access to leave. The PACE at the West has doors that are not locked by staff
members hold it shut while the PACE at the East does have a lock and are observed through a
window. The seclusion area has cameras which allow observations to be completed if a student
stands in the door.
The alleged complaint participants side is that the program is using improper restraints
on students to discriminate against their disability. The complaint is also about the
disproportional amount of representation that African American and Hispanic students have in
the program. An idea that the complaint side has is that the East and the West programs do
different things when going by protocol. However, the schools side is that safety comes first.
Trained staff that hold meetings about policies and information, and doors in windows of padded
areas with security cameras is a necessity for safety. The school also contacted parents when
restraints were completed on their children. However, they did not follow through with all of
their protocol such as keeping track of statistics and written documentation of the case. Another
important side that the school had was that no injuries had been reported from the seclusion area
and restraints.
Through the investigation of on site visits, review of incident reports, interviews from
staff from the PACE program, the Prince Williams County School and the alleged complaint side
were all impacted by the decision. There were many points that the Office for Civil Rights found
in this investigation with the first being that each student did not have their own individualized
behavior intervention. The staff used the same intervention for every student. The PACE West
program had 40 percent or a total of 219 times of their students restrained during the 2011-2012
school year while the next year, only 59 times was reported. This program documented the
length of the time that the student was in the Re-Orientation area. For PACE West means that the

average time a student was in this area was 10.6 hours a day. Another key find in the PACE West
program was that functional behavioral assessments had not been created.
The findings for the PACE East was that students were in the secluded area of the ReOrientation for a total of 144 and 154 times. But no documentation had been kept on the number
of students sent or the hours they had spent. Unlike, the PACE West, PACE East did have
behavior plans there were behavior plans but it was universal. In the BIP, there is nowhere listed
that seclusion or restraints are an option for students during intervention.
The last few key components that the investigation team found was that during the time
students were in the Re-Orientation room or the seclusion area there were not having access to
the curriculum. Students were missing key instructional time. No plan is in action for catching
the students up or providing them with the information that they missed. Parents are called about
the incidents but little to no actual written communication completed. In the March 2014, Civil
Rights Data Collection, the program has zero incidents of physical restraints and seclusion
recorded.
Through the investigation, the court had a split decision. The court did decide that the
program staff was trained for placing students in restraints, and followed the policy that was
created for the restraints. However, the program was completing improper paper work,
communication to parents and the Office for Civil Rights, little to no behavior intervention per
student and lastly had no plan for students to make up the curriculum outside of their classroom.
The complaint about the disproportionally representation of African American and Hispanics
found that African Americans and White students are overrepresented in the program while the
Hispanic students are underrepresented.

The court decisions impacts schools because issue with restraining students. This
involves all schools because of the idea of restraining and secluding students from the general
curriculum. Another large issue that comes up with this case is the discrimination of race and
national origin. There is a wide diversity of students in schools today, it is important the school
corporation make sure that all students are being treated equally whether they have a disability or
not. The case that was discussed above is one that I am sure I will see.. In the case with the
school and staff it shows how important documentation is with every incident. It is also
important to evaluate and have a behavior plan for each student especially if they are in such a
program because of the behaviors. I am on the crisis prevention intervention team at the school
which I am employed. I make sure that everything I do and any incident that I am involved with
is documented to cover myself, the other staff members and the school. While reading this case,
it definitely shocked and scared me at what could happen if our school did not require
appropriate documentation. It goes to show that all the paperwork that is done after a restraint or
seclusion time is extremely important and has to be legally completed. With that said, I agree
completely with the courts decisions because the school needs to handle the incidents with
extreme caution. There is a reason why these behaviors are happening and with appropriate,
precise documentation this will help better accommodate the students. I also strongly disagree
that not all students have individualized behavior interventions. Every student is different and
requires a different intervention, this is something that as a teacher I would develop immediately
especially for students who are in this emotional disability setting. The interventions that are
being used are done solely to fix the current problem not the long run behavior.

Citation
Bhagat, K. (2014). OCR Complaint No. 11-13-1058 Letter of Findings. United States
Department of Education; Office For Civil Rights. Retrieved from:
http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/caselaw/2014/VA.OCR.princewm.restraint.pdf