Restraint & Seclusion

US DOE has developed 15 principles for states, school districts, school, parent, and other stakeholders to consider when developing or revising policies and procedures on the use of restraint and seclusion. These principles stress that every effort should be made to prevent the need for the use of restraint and seclusion and that any behavioral intervention must be consistent with the child’s rights to be treated with dignity and to be free from abuse. Schools must do everything possible to ensure all children can learn, develop, and participate in instructional programs that promote high levels of academic achievement. To accomplish this, schools must make every effort to structure safe environments and provide a behavioral framework, such as the use of positive behavior interventions and supports that applies to all children all staff, and all places in the school so that restraint and seclusion techniques are unnecessary.

Alaska Statutes 14.33.125 and 14.33.127 took effect on October 14, 2014. This legislation states that a school district shall provide crisis intervention training to a sufficient number of its employees to meet the needs of the school population. This required crisis intervention training must be part of a crisis intervention program that has been approved by EED.

Other district requirements include adding the use of seclusion and restraint to local school discipline and safety program policies and procedures as well as incident data collection/documentation and incident reporting to parents, to the department, and the public.