Group pushes for special education discipline reform
6:57 p.m. Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Topeka — Members of the Disability Rights Center attended the State Board of Education meeting today. The group wanted to propose guidelines for schools to follow when punishing special education students.
Advocates said the mandates are a must to prevent mistreatment of students.
“We have kids who have been sat on by gym teachers. Their arms have been duct taped together as a form of restraint. They’ve been rolled up in gym mats. They’ve been placed in little boxes,” Rocky Nichols, Disability Rights Center, said.
Those forms of discipline are extreme, but true. Members of the Disability Rights Center said they hope a few guidelines will help identify what is and is not appropriate when it comes to handling special education kids with behavior problems.
“That’s incredibly important now, because there are no standards. There are no rules,” Nichols said.
If a child becomes out of control and must be separated from other students, teachers can place them in what is called a “seclusion room.” The proposal recommended the room should be at least 36 square feet – about the size of a walk-in closet. That may sound small, but advocates said they had to take several factors into account when determining the optimum size for the room.
“If you get a room too big, the child might get a pretty good run in and hurt himself,” Rodney Bieker, Department of Education, said. “You get a room too small and you got a poor little child that’s claustrophobic and can’t even breathe in there.”
A special education child could also be restrained, but only if the child’s actions put themselves or others in danger. Only trained staff can restrain the child.
“I think it’s real important that everyone involved with restraining a child with disabilities certainly have the training, and that’s what this regulation is designed to do,” Bieker said.
Several different groups worked to create the proposal, including special education teacher who agree that specific guidelines would help everybody when situations arise in the classroom.
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