Alabama schools reported students being physically restrained by school employees thousands of times — just in one year.

The most recent data is old, from the 2017-18 school year, but it is the most recent data currently available. Nine out of 10 times, physical restraints were used against children with disabilities. See recent information from your school and district below.

For years, AL.com has requested more recent reports of restraint and seclusion. School districts are supposed to file them each year with the state Department of Education. The department has not yet provided those records to journalists.

Physically restraining a child at school is supposed to be a method of last resort according to training documents posted on the Alabama Department of Education website. Experts AL.com spoke with said if a school official has to physically restrain a child, it’s evidence of a systemic failure to address a child’s behavioral problems.

Tell a reporter: Is there something we should know about seclusion, restraint or school discipline in Alabama?

Perhaps even more troubling is that Alabama schools put children in seclusion – isolating them in a locked room – nearly 600 times in 2017-18. Seclusion was prohibited in Alabama in a 2011 rule enacted by the state board of education.

There is no federal law regarding restraint and seclusion in schools, leaving states responsible.

Why do schools use seclusion and restraint?

When students are unruly or endanger others at school, educators may discipline, suspend or expel students who break the rules.

Seclusion and restraint are not supposed to be punishments for misbehavior; instead, they are practices intended to deescalate a situation and stop a student from harming themselves or others. Officials recognize that physical restraint is necessary in some situations, but have strict rules in order to ensure the safety of students and staff.

The Alabama Board of Education adopted rules in 2011 prohibiting seclusion and limiting restraint to being used only in certain forms and when a child is a danger to themselves or others.

According to behavioral experts, school officials should aim to get to the root of a child’s behavioral problem at school. Evidence-based behavior management strategies work, but teachers and staff that work with students must be trained in those techniques.

School administrators and special education personnel are responsible for bringing those techniques to teachers to help them appropriately discipline students with behavioral problems.

What follows is a look at the most recent data available, divided into reports of physical restraint and reports of seclusion.

Types of restraint in Alabama schools

Restraining a child is an intervention designed to keep a child from hurting himself or others. Teachers and other staff are required to be trained in whatever restraint technique they’ve chosen to use. That technique is supposed to be documented in a school district’s policy and procedures manual.

Restraints can look like:

• Physical, where a trained educator holds a child to immobilize and calm them. This is allowed in school environments.
• Chemical, where a child is medically sedated. This is not allowed in school.
• Mechanical, where a child is strapped to a chair or device that stops them from moving. This is not allowed in school.

Restraint is most often used on children with disabilities.

During the 2017-18 school year, physical restraint:

• Was used in 321 of Alabama’s 1360 schools,
• Was used to restrain 916 students,
• Was used a total of 2,254 times.

Of those 916 students, 778, or 85%, were students with disabilities.

Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program Assistant Director Nancy Anderson told AL.com restraint should only be used in an emergency, such as when a child darts toward a busy street.

A single incidence of restraint should trigger a review of the type of behavioral support the child is given. If a child is restrained more than one time, Anderson said, school and district officials probably haven’t addressed the behavior that caused the problem.

“When a restraint occurs,” Anderson said, “I think of it as a failure. Not of a teacher, not of a child, but of the system, of the support that’s been put in place. And let’s go in and figure out what’s wrong there. What can we do differently to make it better?”

Only teachers and staff who are trained and certified in how to properly physically restrain a student are allowed to do so. Training must be done in whichever restraint approach a school district adopts.

Prone physical restraint – restraining a child in a face-down position on a flat surface – is prohibited under all circumstances. And any restraint that restricts air flow to a child’s airways is also prohibited.

Tragic consequences, including death, have occurred from the misuse of the practices in other states. No child in Alabama has died as a result of these practices, according to available data.

Federal data shows that 10 Alabama schools, eight within the same district, reported using physical restraint multiple times on only one child.

One school, Pelham Oaks in Pelham City Schools, reported using physical restraints 204 times on a total of seven children with disabilities. The school reported using physical restraint once on a child without disabilities.

The table below shows the number of children who were physically restrained and the total number of times physical restraint was used for children without and with disabilities. If a school is not listed, there were no reports of physical restraint for the 2017-18 school year.

Seclusion, isolation in Alabama schools

Seclusion, the practice of isolating a child in a location where the child cannot get out, like in a locked closet or classroom, is prohibited in Alabama.

Yet 263 students among 46 schools were placed in seclusion 599 times during the 2017-18 school year according to data reported by schools to federal education officials.

Two-thirds of children placed in seclusion had disabilities.

Seclusion is not the same as in-school suspension or time out. Time out is allowed, as long as children are in an unlocked area that is lighted and has appropriate air flow and temperature controls. An adult must be able to see the child and be within reasonable proximity in case the child needs assistance.

Among the 46 schools that reported using seclusion, one school – Thompson Intermediate School in Alabaster City – stood out: It used seclusion on 13 students with disabilities a total of 106 times during the 2017-18 school year.

It’s unclear if schools that reported seclusion were monitored or otherwise contacted by the state’s department of education, which is charged with implementing the board’s prohibition on the practice.

Special education attorney James Gallini, who represents Alabama students, said the state board’s regulation has no penalty or punishment for school officials that use seclusion or otherwise break the rules of the regulation.

The table below shows the number of Alabama children who were secluded and the total number of times children were secluded. The table indicates reports for children with and without disabilities. If a school is not listed, there were no reports of using seclusion for the 2017-18 school year.

Issues with seclusion and restraint data

It’s not clear whether schools accurately and consistently report restraint and seclusion. A 2020 report U.S. Government Accountability Office in 2020 found “significant quality issues” with that data..

The federal government requires schools to report incidents of seclusion and restraint as part of the biennial Civil Rights Data Collection.

Former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in 2019 launched a national effort to educate school officials on alternatives to and proper reporting of restraint and seclusion practices.

Read more:

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Alabama school district files criminal charge against student with disabilities.

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