Seclusion legislation headed to Hogan

By JILLIAN ATELSEK

jatelsek@newspost.com

A state bill banning seclusion in public schools and bolstering tracking requirements for the use of physical restraint is headed to Gov. Larry Hogan.

Members of the Maryland House of Delegates voted 132-1 to advance the legislation Thursday, signaling broad agreement with tweaks made in the Senate. Their decision eliminates the need for a conference committee, which would have worked to resolve minor discrepancies between the House and Senate versions of the bill.

The development comes four months after the U.S. Department of Justice announced an investigation showing Frederick County Public Schools had violated state and federal laws in its use of isolation and physical restraint against students with disabilities.

Soon after the Department of Justice announced its findings on Dec. 1, FCPS said it would stop using seclusion, under which students are locked alone in a space often no larger than a closet. Seclusion is still allowed in most of Maryland’s 24 public school systems and many nonpublic settings.

Seclusion would remain legal in nonpublic schools under the new law, but it would be subject to much stricter rules.

If Hogan, R, approves the legislation, districts would need to update the way they track and report incidents of physical restraint, which is disproportionately used against students with special needs, boys and Black children.

Currently, districts must report their number of seclusion and restraint incidents to the state each year. The new law — which would take effect July 1 — would keep that requirement, but also require districts to show how many restraints each individual student experienced.

Administrators would have to immediately notify the state and submit a “systemic, evidence-based corrective action plan” as soon as any student was restrained or secluded 10 times or more in a given school year.

One mother who spoke to the News-Post in December shared documents showing that her son, who is autistic and nonverbal, was restrained or secluded more than 200 times in a single year at Rock Creek School, FCPS’ facility for children with severe disabilities. The DOJ found that FCPS used seclusion or restraint more than 7,000 times on just 125 students over two and a half school years.

As of March 23, there had been 41 incidents of restraint across FCPS since the DOJ released its report. Thirty-three of those involved stu- (See SECLUSION A14)

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(SECLUSTION from A1) dents with disabilities.

The bill also specifies that for nonpublic schools, each 30-minute chunk of time a student spends in seclusion must be counted as its own seclusion incident for tracking purposes. In Frederick, staff sometimes secluded a student for hours by recording the time in separate 30-minute increments, according to documents reviewed by the News-Post.

If the student stops being a physical threat before the 30 minutes are up, the law would require the seclusion to end. Another mother who spoke to the News-Post shared documents showing that staff sometimes kept her son in seclusion long after recording that he was calm. On multiple occasions, that student ate his lunch in the seclusion room.

Each local school system would have to submit an annual report to the state that details the efforts it’s taken to reduce the overall use of restraint. The law would also require the state superintendent to implement new training on “positive behavioral interventions” for all school staff who regularly interact with children.

Follow Jillian Atelsek on Twitter: @jillian_atelsek