Here is your chance to get involved in systemic advocacy!!
On December 9, 2009 U.S. Representatives George Miller (D-CA) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) introduced legislation entitled “Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in the Schools Act.” This Act is numbered HR 4247 and is currently looking for co sponsors.
This bill would prevent and reduce inappropriate restraint and seclusion by establishing minimum safety standards in schools, similar to protections already in place in hospitals and non medical community based facilities.
This bill is in response to the GAO (Government Accounting Office) investigation and report into the hundreds of cases of children with disabilities being abused due to inappropriate use of Restraint and Seclusion. In some cases children have died due to the use of these techniques—especially prone restraint (face down).
This legislation would:
1. Establish important minimum federal safety standards in schools.
2. Limit physical restraint and locked seclusion. These interventions will only be allowed when there is imminent danger of injury, and only when imposed by trained staff.
3. Outlaw mechanical restraints, such as straps to chairs, and prohibit any restraint that restricts breathing (prone restraints).
4. Require school districts to notify parents after every incident when restraint and seclusion has been used.
5. Encourage states to provide support and training to school staff to better protect students and prevent the need for emergency behavioral interventions.
6. Increase transparency, oversight and enforcement tools to prevent children from being abused in the future.
7. Prohibit aversive behavioral interventions that compromise the health and safety of children. These could be denying students food, water, clothing, access to toilets or using pepper spray to control behavior.
8. Prohibit school districts from including restraint and seclusion in a child’s Individual Educational Plan (IEP).
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COPAA which is the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (parents may join as well) was very involved in the drafting of this bill. COPAA is a wonderful organization and is worth joining. Parents pay a yearly fee of $50.00 and have access to a lot of wonderful important information on special education! Find COPAA at: www.copaa.org.
COPAA has a few suggestions of ways to improve this bill:
1. The bill will allow for Protection and Advocacy (P&A’s) to enforce this bill but COPAA believes that the bill needs to include a parent’s right to enforce the bill. Parents should be able to go to court to enforce this legislation!
2. The bill should apply not only to locked seclusion rooms, but any place where school personnel prevent a child from leaving. COPAA is referring to teachers holding doors closed, pushing furniture in front of a door to prevent the child from leaving etc.
3. The bill needs to include the prohibition of the use of mechanical devices to restrain a child for discipline or behavioral interventions!
4. The bill needs to include the provision that parents are notified yearly of their rights under this bill.
5. The bill should include a provision that all school personnel must be trained in the bills requirements.
6. The bill needs to require that all incidents of restraint or seclusion be reported to a states P&A, not only those that result in injury or death.
7. The bill needs to require states to track the use of R&S and make an annual public report about violations of the law.
JoAnn--Great job COPAA—proud to be a member!!
The discussion below was “There are no penalties in IDEA The parent’s response: “Taking “ I know the tactics used by “It is about money with school JoAnn’s comments to all of We must stand up to them,
in a newsletter several
months ago--I am keeping
it here because of the
importance of this
discussion:
I recently had an interesting
discussion with several parents
about how school districts seem
to be getting bolder in their
attempts to deny services for
children with disabilities. I
thought that some of the
comments were interesting so I
would like to share them with
you:
for denying children special
education services so the only
penalty to a school district is
their cost of the due process
hearing, x the probability of the
parents filing. The chance is
small compared to the actual
cost of providing the services.
So it is logical to the school
district to deny the services, and
hope that the parent will not file
for a due process hearing. To
change this situation parents
would have to file and win in
sufficient numbers, that denying services is not financially
profitable”. JoAnn’s response:
“I believe that nothing is going
to stop this moving bus unless
it is sanctions, punitive
damages and loss of IDEA
federal funding!”
the money back will not solve
the problem since the kids still
need an education. They need to
take the money back and give it
to someone else who can
provide an (appropriate)
education; the parents, or
private school, or maybe
vouchers.”
school districts well. The child
does not have to be failing or academically behind for them to
employ these tactics (all of which
I am familiar with, especially the
smiling faces and lies). It is
absolutely incredible what the
school districts get away with.!“
districts, and there needs to be a
fix for this situation. The power
that the school districts have to
decide who will get services or
not—is grossly negligent and intentionally denying my son to
a full quality of life. “
these: School districts have
become so bold that they are
denying services to children
who are obviously disabled, and are eligible for special education
services. Special education
personnel are wanting to know
if a parent will file for due
process, when they deny
services to the child.
for the good of all children with disabilities!
Disability Deception of the
month
Special education personnel:
“If you disagree with the
proposed changes to your
child’s IEP then file for a due
process hearing!”
This is not true; because in the
US Supreme Court Case Schaffer vs. Weast Justice Sandra Day Oconnor who wrote the decision states: “that
school districts have an obligation to file
for a due process hearing if the
parent does not consent to
changes in their child’s IEP.”
Schaffer vs. Weast also put the
burden of proof standard on the person that file for the due process (but only if the state does not have a law already stating who has the
burden of proof).
If parents do not file for a due
process hearing the school
district can implement the newly proposed IEP. If the school district refuses to file for a due process hearing the parent may be forced to, but in this case the parent can ask that the burden of proof be
shifted to the school district
because they refused to file!
Advocates and special education attorney’s have had some success shifting the burden of proof to the school district if they refuse to file in
this instance!
**************
Special Education and Disability
News
**Several articles this month on
the continuing discussion about
Restraint and Seclusion for
children with disabilities. Below are the links and info on these articles:
Parade magazine had an article
entitled “Should Schools Use
Restraints on Students?”
This can be found at: Http://www.parade.com/news/intelligence-report/archive/090726-should-schools-use-restraints-on-students.html.
This article talked about three
students and their experiences
with restraint and seclusion.
Also discussed is laws that were
passed many years ago for
hospitals and institutions, but
do not apply to school districts.
Representative George Miller
from California is working on
legislation that could limit the
use of restraint and seclusion in
schools, provide funding to train school staff, and require communication with
parents.
**New York Times article
entitled: “Disabled Students are Spanked more” This can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/education/11punish.html?_r=1&hp. Discussion
of corporal punishment,
numbers of students that were
given corporal punishment in the year 2006-2997, states banning corporal
punishment. Also, discussion of
a child with autism from Mississippi who was paddled for behavior.
******************
Autism Service Dogs
A recent article in various newspapers entitled: “Schools fight families over autism service dogs.”
This article can be
found at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090821/ap_on_he_me/us_autism_dogs_schools
The article discussed parents
from across the USA having to
go to court to enforce the
American with Disabilities Act
(ADA) on allowing service dogs
in school buildings. Many
parents have won the right to
have the dogs accompany their
children to school. Two parents
from Illinois also recently won
injunctions allowing the dogs to
accompany their children to
school
************
If you are interested in finding
out more information on autism
service dogs I recently wrote a
couple of articles on autism
service dogs and school districts
refusal to allow them in schools
with children with autism. Check
out the articles at: www.ezinearti
cles.com. Also included in the
articles is information on
organizations that train dogs for
this purpose. Check this out and
see if it will work for your child!
Systemic Advocacy
This months newsletter will
contain information about what systemic advocacy is and how you can make a difference
in the special education system!
Most of the advocacy that we do
as parents and advocates is
considered individual advocacy.
We work to get one child the
special education services that
they need and are entitled to.
While fighting for those services
often impact other children
(for the better in my opinion), it
is still considered individual
advocacy.
Systemic advocacy is when a
person is fighting to change the
system. In our case we would
be fighting to change the special education system!
Years ago I believed that
individual advocacy was the way
to change the special education
system—but I have altered my
viewpoint a little bit. To bring
about positive changes to
special education is through
systemic advocacy, though I
continue to believe in individual
advocacy!
Systemic advocacy can be as
simple as standing up at a
schoolboard meeting, writing
a letter to the editor, or writing
your state and federal legislators.
I am including a copy of a letter
to the editor that I sent to my
local paper, who printed it. My
letter to the editor was in
response to an article on a local
school district. The person
speaking made some comments
that were not in alignment with
the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act, and were not
even accurate in my opinion.
Here is the letter:
Letter to the editor:
I have been an educational
advocate for children with
disabilities for over 15 years.
Many times school personnel
have refused to provide
educational services that children
need. I have never once had any
school representative tell me
that they were denying the
service, believing that the child
needed the service. Most times
special education personnel
stated that the child did not
need the service. Imagine my
shock when I read the article of
(date) in this newspaper entitled:
“Schools at standstill.” The article
stated that the Kankakee School
district (its special education
program) is waiting for $2.3
million in state grants. John
Gibson assistant superintendent
of business services was quoted
as saying: “If the grants do not
come in, you’d have to reduce
the services, on those so you
just don’t serve those needs.”
In my opinion Mr. Gibson is
admitting that children with
disabilities will not get mandated
services, because of lack of
funding. This is not allowed
under the federal Individual with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA
2004).
Why is Kankakee School District
using grant money to fund
special education anyway?
Unless what Mr. Gibson is
referring to is IDEA special
education money. If the school
district is using grant money to
fund special education, what are
they doing with their federal
IDEA funds? If you live in the
Kankakee School District please
ask these questions for the good
of all children!
JoAnn Collins address
JoAnn—I have written so
many of these over the years
the last one I sent in they gave
me a whole column! Good way
to get your point across!
Here are a few guidelines
about writing letters to the
editor (though you may want
to check with your local
newspaper for their particular
requirements):
1. Make it short—at the most
one page. In bigger newspapers
I find that they often do not print
long letters—or they may pick
and choose what to print.
2. You can write about any
issue,but it makes it easier to
comment on a story already
published in the paper. Just be
sure and put the date of the
story and the Title of the story.
3. Only try and make a couple of
points in the letter. I like to put
questions in the letter hoping
that the people involved will
respond. They usually do not—
but I can hope!
4. In some letters I ask for the
people reading to do something.
Perhaps contact their state and
federal representatives or their
school boards.
5. Sign your name and give
contact information for people
to call you, if they would like
What can you do about the restraint and seclusion issue????
The National Autism Association has set up an Action Center for you to E mail your Congressional Representative! They would like for you to ask them to Co Sponsor HR 4247! This is a bipartisan bill that does not require any public funding (other than possibly having the P&A’s enforcing this bill).
I also believe that you should include in any correspondence with your Congressional Representative, the COPAA recommendations for strengthening this bill! Also, add any personal stories that you have about the use of Restraint and Seclusion, and how it affected your child!
I would like to challenge every reader of this newsletter to contact the National Autism Association Action Center and send your Congressional Representative an E mail on this subject. The E mail address is: http://www.kintera.org/c.ltJTJ8MOIsE/b.5281489/k.8D4C/Action_Center/siteapps/advocacy/ActionCenter.aspx
If you will do this: make a copy of your E maiI, and send it to me, I will send you a complimentary copy of my E book: Behavioral Basics; 6 Easy Steps to Improving Your Child’s School Behavior!! You can E mail me a copy of your E mail at: JoAnn@disabilitydeception.com or send by regular mail to JoAnn Collins PO Box 89 Bradley Il. 60915 Make sure you include your address so that I can send you the E book!
Help a child with disabilities that you know stay safe!!