June 10, 2010

ISSN: 1538-3202

Subscribers: 80,805

In This Alert ...

Will the Senate Pass the Restraint and Secluation Bill?

Call Your Senator and ask for support of the bill!

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Pete and Pam Wright
Wrightslaw & The Special Ed Advocate
P. O. Box 1008
Deltaville, VA 23043

Copyright © 2009, 2010 Peter W. D. Wright and Pamela Darr Wright. All rights reserved. Please do NOT reprint or host on your web site without explicit permission.

Two months ago, the House approved its restraint/seclusion bill (H.R. 4247), passing the baton to the Senate to approve S. 2860, the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act sponsored by Senator Dodd.

The bills are groundbreaking.  They protect all 53 million children in America including 7 million with disabilities, whether in public or private school, from harmful restraint/seclusion and also aversives that compromise health and safety.

But opponents of the bills have fought hard in the Senate and the House. Shortly before the House voted, they began lobbying fiercely to protect their rights to use these methods.

• Some advocates and parents wanted to exclude private schools that use aversives from the bill. 
• Others wanted to permit restraint/seclusion in IEPs with little limitation, and if not IEPs, then a student plan written by staff, outside of IDEA and its procedural protections, least restrictive environment requirements, and stay-put.

If they cannot have this, they want the bill stopped.

Some Congressmen think that if restraint, seclusion, or aversives are included in the IEP, it is by fully-informed parent agreement, and this is sufficient to protect children.

They need to know what the IEP process is really like, how too often parents are forced to accept things by school employees, how little control parents have.

Congress needs to hear your stories and your clients’ stories about the IEP process. If you have experience with FBAs and positive interventions and how those help resolve difficult behaviors, share those experiences.

There have been thousands of incidents of inappropriate restraint and seclusion, according to Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), lead cosponsor of the House bill.   The GAO has documented injuries and death. 

Isn’t it time to stop end this cycle of violence by asking the Senate to pass the House bill?

Don’t all children deserve the minimal protections that it promises? 

To learn more details about this proposed law, read Will the Senate Pass the Restraint and Seclusion Bill? Or Instead Make it Easier to Use Aversives, Retraint, and Seclusion? by Jessica Butler, Esq.

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Ask the Senate to Pass the House Bill

1. Call your Senators and ask them to pass S.2860, the restraint/seclusion bill as it passed the House.  Dial 202-224-3121 or go to www.senate.gov, click on Senators for contact information (including local numbers).  Ask for your Senator’s Education Aide or HELP Committee aide, and leave a detailed voicemail message if they are unavailable.

Ask them to pass the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act, S. 2860, just as the House passed it in March. 

• Explain why there shouldn't be loopholes for private schools that use aversives; or broad general loopholes to include restraint/seclusion in IEPs.
• Share restraint/seclusion/aversive stories.
• If you don’t have these stories, tell a story about your personal experience with the inequalities in the IEP process, and ask that they protect children from these kinds of inequalities in the restraint/seclusion bill.
• Make the point that simply having the IEP process is not enough to protect children.  Tell them how positive interventions can really make a difference.
• Tell them the bill may be made part of the ESEA Reauthorization (what used to be NCLB), and they should watch for the bill there, too. 

Calls are much better than email.  If you cannot call due to disability or other severe restraints, please send an email but perhaps ask a friend to also make a call. Congress pays greater attention to phone calls and voicemail messages. And they need a lot of them right now.

2. Consider sharing your views on S. 2860 with Senator Harkin and Senator Enzi, who lead the Senate Committee.  Senator Harkin, the Committee Chair: phone 202-224-3254, fax 202-224-9369); Senator Enzi, the leading Republican, phone 202-224-3424 (fax 202-228-0359).  The other side has lobbied them, even coming in for visits.

When Congress does not hear from you, they assume the other side is telling the truth about what parents want and need.  Your voice and experiences as family members and advocates for children with disabilities matter.

3. Share this email with friends, neighbors, and colleagues or write your own, and ask them to make a call, too.

4.  Even if you opposed the House bill because you thought it wasn’t strong enough, please consider calling the Senate.  Let them know that private schools that use aversives should be covered by the bill. Let them know that there shouldn’t be broad IEP loopholes. And tell them your stories about IEP unfairness, too.  You can do this without saying that you support the bill.

Link to this Alert: https://www.wrightslaw.com/nltr/10/al.restraint.senate.bill.htm

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