Federal investigators have faulted two Virginia schools for pinning down and isolating disabled students improperly, saying the schools used the practices routinely as a “one-size fits all” response to disruptive behavior despite evidence they didn’t work.
Rather than focusing on specific incidents, the investigators found a systematic breakdown in how educators at the schools employed restraints and seclusions. The school-wide scope of the findings signals that the federal education department’s Office of Civil Rights expects schools to pay close attention to how they are implementing the potentially dangerous tactics.
“It says our default response to misbehavior can’t be restraint and seclusion,” said Angela Ciolfi, a lawyer with the Virginia Legal Aid Justice Center, which worked on the complaint that prompted the investigation.
[For more of this story, written by Heather Vogell, go to http://www.psmag.com/navigatio...aints-schools-88596/]
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