Attribution:

Cara Burlingame, is a Teacher of Students with Moderate Cognitive Impairments in the Bay
Arenac ISD. She received her undergraduate degree from Saginaw Valley State University in
Teaching. She continued her education at Saginaw Valley and earned a Masters Degree in
Teaching Special Education in, 2011. Currently, working to earn her Specialist in Education
Degree through Central Michigan University.

Guest Commentary

Seclusion and Restraints in the Classroom

This coming year will be a big change within public and non-public schools across the
country. There is a new policy being implemented for seclusions and restraints in the classroom.
The children of this world are already subjected to violence on a daily basis, why should it also
occur in their classrooms? This should be a safe place for all children.
This new policy will put in place better, non-violent procedures for the school staff to
follow. There is going to be more accountability and data tracking of anytime a child has been
put in a seclusion or restrained. This has not been done in the past, and schools have been
allowed to follow a less than safe protocol for all children.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education Civil Rights department found students with
disabilities were subjected to seclusion and restraints at a rate that was much higher than those of
other students. Not only public schools, but schools that teach students with severe disabilities
and non-public schools need more accountability for the safety of the children and staff. The
new policy will allow only professionally trained staff to intervene in a restraint and or the
seclusion of a child, no matter if the child has a disability or not.
When speaking with a local school district official, she says her district will increase the
use of Positive Behavior Interventions Plans for students in need due behavior issues. This has
proven in the past to decrease the needs for the use of seclusion and restraints in the classroom.
Training all staff to be more aware and qualified in deescalating a situation before it becomes
violent is her goal. There is a 5 point scale developed through START, where it details using a
level system of what the students behavior looks like at level 1 and what the adult response
should be. This is an evidence based practice that this district has started to utilize in the
classrooms and has found good success with it. This Administrator is in favor of the stricter
guidelines and plans on implementing the policy in her district with great fidelity.
Many reports I have read show that using the practices of seclusion and restraints in the
classrooms does not decrease student behaviors. There is not a need to continue these practices
if it is not making an impact on progress for the students. In some cases there has been injury to
a child and in rare, unfortunate cases there has been death. This cases are due to the negligence
of the staff member not doing proper procedures and monitor the child in a safe manner. If the
staff member is not even allowed to perform a seclusion or a restraint, the child would not be in
grave danger of being harmed by the staff involved. Speaking with a classroom teacher of
students with emotional impairments, she thinks the implementation of stricter policies is a good
thing to hold teachers more accountable for their actions. IT also is making districts be more
aware and offer more appropriate professional development to help address the needs of all
students in violent situations. Many times, she has been in a situation with other adults and they
do not follow the proper guidelines, and this puts the child in risk of being harmed.
The new policy will still allow emergency situation to use the use of a seclusion or a
restraint, but there are strict guidelines that will need to be followed before, during and after such
event. Districts will have procedures in place and more follow up paper work to be completed.
All occurrences will be verbally relayed to the administration, parents and the State of Michigan
Education Department in a defined amount of time. Frequent and random monitoring will take
place as well, to ensure all districts are in compliance with the proper training and uses of
seclusion rooms. This in hopes that the policy will reduce the amount of violence a child will be
witness or part of in a school setting. Any part of restraining a child or putting them in seclusion
does not belong in our schools. This policy does leave the ability to do a restraint in order to
keep a child safe from harming themselves. If this policy is implemented and followed as
outlined, the use of seclusion and restrains will decrease in schools providing a safe, non-violent
environment for the children of our county while in the care of schools districts.