On September 11, 2009, the Federal Register provided notice under the Department of Education – Annual Mandatory Collection of Elementary and Secondary Education Data for EDFacts that OCR will begin collecting data on seclusion and restraint in schools. The link to the Federal Register notice is: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-21935.pdf.
Restraint and Seclusion are defined:
Restraints—any manual method, physical or mechanical device, material, or equipment that immobilizes the ability of an individual to move his or her arms, legs, body, or head freely.
Seclusion—involuntary confinement of an individual alone in a room or area from which the individual is physically prevented from leaving.
Data on restraint and seclusion will be collected for three groups:
- all students
- students with IEPs
- students without IEPs
You can find the reporting table at http://edicsweb.ed.gov, click on ‘browse pending collections’ and then click on ‘info collection 04127. Click “Att_EDFacts CRDC 2009 B-4 changes v23-cb.doc” for the list of data to be collected.
This document shows other new categories for data collection: bullying and harassment incidents and students discipline, college prep classes, teaching experience, etc. Not every school district will collect data. The above document explains when and how data will be collected.
There is a 60 day comment period. The deadline for comments in November 10, 2009.
Comments on the proposed revisions should be sent to ICDocketMgr@ed.gov
TDD – call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1–800–877–8339.
Isnt this putting the cart in front of the horse? How about making it mandatory to document restraint & seclusion first. The numbers will not be accurate. Most parents wont even file OCR complaints because nothing is done. OCR should be asking the parents in every district for this information…… oh wait, that wouldnt be accuate either, most schools dont tell the parents what they do to their children.
We need Federal Laws to protect our children.
Floridians support HB81!!!
The data OCR is collecting will NEVER be accurate because many school districts do not track or report restraint and seclusion and also they police themselves so they can make up what they want. If they have not been tracking it will just look like they have no problems in their district with restraint and seclusion.
My child’s information is documented in the report that was presented to Congress in May 2009.
Becuase of my son’s diagnosis, he was not allowed to attend assemblies, eat lunch with peers, or go onto the recreation field with peers during lunch, attend P.E.. Psych evals docuement a child who is compliant and works well with minimal redirection.
A former storage closet was cleaned out and locked from the outside and was the “class room” for my son only.
The school district pays for private counseling to address bullying with a documented goal of “Teach name propers responses to being bullied and teased”.
I am glad to see this data collected and the illusion offered that it will be measured on a National level.
Our stories are all the same. Change the school district and date, insert your child.
Time to change this…