2019 Act 118: What Administrators Need to Know about Seclusion and RestraintBy DPI Student Services/Prevention and Wellness Team and Special Education The pandemic has prompted our educational system to focus on how we support student mental health and well-being, and has highlighted and exacerbated many of the inequities within our system. Practices such as seclusion and restraint certainly have an impact on the mental health and well being of both students and the staff members, and the data is clear that these practices are overwhelmingly used on students with disabilities. 2019 Wis. Act 118, which updated Wisconsin state law addressing the use of seclusion and restraint in schools, went into effect on Wednesday, March 4, 2020. Just over a month later, the Safer at Home response to the COVID-19 pandemic went into effect. So the significant changes to seclusion and restraint practices and procedures were easy to miss or overlook. This article will describe some of the main differences between Act 125 and Act 118, review data collected during the 2020-21 school year, and provide resources for strategies and practices that can support schools and districts in reducing the use of seclusion and restraint. Significant Changes from 2011 to 2019: Act 118 updates what is required of individualized education program (IEP) teams for students with disabilities. Teams no longer are required to anticipate whether or not seclusion or restraint may be necessary and document that determination in the IEP. Teams are required, however, to convene and consider IEP changes based on a Functional Behavior Assessment after the second incident of seclusion or restraint in a school year. The team must meet for this purpose no more than 10 days after the second incident. Regardless of whether or not a student has an IEP, there are additional meeting, communication and notification requirements whenever seclusion or restraint are used. Individuals involved in seclusion or restraint must now meet following any incident to debrief and document the incident. Parents then must be notified within one business day and provided a written report of the incident within three business days of the incident. The training requirements for any individual using seclusion or restraint in schools have also been updated. Training must now include evidence-based instructional methods and techniques designed to reduce the use of seclusion and restraint. Training also now requires trainees to demonstrate the ability to identify prohibited techniques. Techniques and methods now expressly prohibited under Act 118 include prone restraints and seclusions that occur in areas that have a door with a lock. No room or area used for seclusion may have a door with a lock. One final major change is the reporting requirements. Previously, district seclusion and restraint data was only required to be reported to the LEA’s school board annually by September 1st. Under Act 118, LEAs must report their data to their school board by October 1st, and now must also submit an annual report to the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) by December 1st. Reports must include the number of incidents of seclusion and restraint by school, and must be broken down by the total number of students involved in the incidents. The report must also disaggregate the data by disability status. For additional details regarding these and other changes, please review this Side-by-Side Comparison Chart and Act 118 Summary Document. 2019-2020 School Year Data: As mentioned in the previous section, DPI is now required to collect seclusion and restraint data for all schools and districts in Wisconsin. The data collected by December 1st of each year will always reflect the number of seclusions and restraints occurring during the previous academic year. It is important to note that the most recent data collected reflects seclusions and restraints that occurred during the 2019-20 school year--a year in which all schools were mandated to shift to virtual instruction through the remainder of the academic year. It is also important to note that during the 2020-21 school year many districts continued to operate under virtual or hybrid models of instruction. The disruptions and changes to instruction make it difficult to make many broad conclusions about seclusion and restraint practices in Wisconsin. But the data does demonstrate some trends and is still informative. Seclusion and Restraint are common in Wisconsin districts, occurring at least once in 53.3% of schools. Within these schools, 5,742 students experienced 18,341 seclusions or restraints. The overwhelming majority of seclusion (82%) and restraint (77%) incidents involve students with disabilities. Additionally, most restraints occur at the elementary school level. You can review your own district’s data, and that of districts around the state by clicking here:AY 2019-2020 Statewide Pupil Seclusion and Restraint Data. We encourage you to dig into your data and to consider demographics to identify your own local trends and patterns in order to assist in reducing the amount of seclusions and restraints that occur in your district. Pay special attention to data disaggregated by race/ethnicity, gender, disability status, dual language speaker status, socioeconomic status, and other locally relevant demographic data. Understanding your data and investigating the root causes is an important step in being able to reduce or eliminate the need to use seclusion and restraint in your district using the resources described in the next section. Resources to Support the Reduction of Seclusion and Restraint: A Spring 2009 joint report from Disability Rights Wisconsin, Wisconsin FACETS and Wisconsin Family Ties entitled “Out of Darkness …Into the Light New Approaches to Reducing the Use of Seclusion and Restraint with Wisconsin Children,” as well as many other studies and research clearly outline the real-world negative impact the experience of being secluded or restrained can have on a child. It is also important to recognize that the experience of placing a child in a restraint or secluding them is not a positive experience for adults either, thus can have a significant negative impact on them as well. Given the negative impact that seclusion and restraint can have on everyone involved in incidents, investing time and energy to implement alternatives is well worth the effort. Before getting into the supports and resources for creating policies, systems, and practices to reduce the number of seclusion and restraint incidents, it is important to reiterate that their use in the first place is by law only permitted when “the pupil's behavior presents a clear, present, and imminent risk to the physical safety of the pupil or others and it is the least restrictive intervention feasible.” So the first step in reducing the number of seclusions and restraints is to ensure any covered individual who may engage in these practices is adequately trained and has a full understanding of when seclusion or restraint may be necessary. This basic step, along with other requirements in Act 118, is the bare minimum required to help protect the physical safety and psychological well-being of our students and staff involved in seclusions or restraints. Truly minimizing their use and mitigating their negative effects must start with your district’s equitable Multi-Level Systems of Support (MLSS). Recognizing the system-level influences on seclusion and restraint practices based on an analysis of local data will help determine what policy and procedure changes and professional development may assist in reducing their use. Once root causes have been identified, DPI has many resources and supports for evidence-based practices that can serve as alternatives to seclusion and restraint including:
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