Education Week: Disability-Rights Groups Spar Over Special Ed. Restraints: A Senate bill that would prohibit restraint and seclusion from being used to control students with disabilities is causing a split among some disability-rights advocates.
The bill, sponsored by U.S. Sens. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., and Richard M. Burr, R-N.C., would place an absolute ban on certain restraining techniques, such as holds that impede breathing or mechanical and chemical restraints. Other types of restraints and seclusion could be used only if a student was a serious danger to himself or others and less-restrictive interventions would be ineffective.
But the measure does allow restraints or seclusion to be included as a planned intervention in a student's individualized education program if the student has a history of dangerous behavior.
Exception Stirs Concern
That IEP exception has thrown some groups that were once united in favor of a federal ban on restraint and seclusion into conflict. Some advocates say that school personnel will default to those techniques if they are an option.
The exception gives the techniques 'a false sense of legitimacy,' said Denise Marshall, the executive director of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates in Towson, Md. The Council For Exceptional Children, a professional organization of teachers, administrators, and parents in Arlington, Va., also opposes the bill.
