What a Difference a Day Makes! Restraint and Seclusion Documenting, Reporting and Monitoring

1. What a Difference a Day Makes! Restraint and SeclusionDocumenting, Reporting and Monitoring AMM September 14th, 2011

2. July 1, 2011, House Bill 1255, Education Accountability mandated the following changes to 1003.573, Florida Statutes

3. New Legislation • Incident reports must contain the age, grade, ethnicity, and disability of the student • A description of the type of restraint used in terms established by DOE • Each incident must include whether the student was manually OR physically restrained

4. New Legislation • The data maintained must include the type and method of restraint or seclusion used • The department shall establish standards for documenting, reporting, and monitoring the use of manual or physical restraint or mechanical restraint, and occurrences of seclusion. These standards shall be provided to school districts by October 1, 2011

5. New Standards One step at a time…

6. Districts shall: • Have written procedures for reporting incidents of restraint and seclusion using the Department of Education web-based reporting system • Have policies and procedures for restraint and seclusion on file with the Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services

7. Districts shall: • Have training for personnel on the use of restraint and seclusion and maintain records of such trainings. The records maintained should include, but not be limited to: • Names of personnel trained • Description of training received • Dates of trainings • Have a written plan for reducing restraint and seclusion

8. District Monitoring Standards

9. Districts shall: • Have written policies and procedures for monitoring the use of restraint and seclusion for students with disabilities at the classroom, building, school, and district levels • Have a plan for reviewing restraint and seclusion data and effectiveness of instructional and behavioral practices used to reduce the use of restraint and seclusion, to include when, where, and why the restraint or seclusion occurred

10. Districts shall: • Have policies and procedures for monitoring the use of restraint and seclusion on file with the Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services • Implement a plan for the purpose of reducing the use of restraint and seclusion • Ensure that rooms used for seclusion meet the requirements of Rule 69A-58.0084, Florida Administrative Code

11. Schools shall: • Have written school-based procedures for reporting incidents of restraint and seclusion using the Department of Education web-based reporting system • Have school-based personnel who are trained to enter and report incidents using the DOE web-based reporting system

12. Schools shall: • Follow procedures for written notification of incidents of restraint and seclusion on the day of the incident including, but not limited to: • Providing parents with a notification in writing of any incident of restraint or seclusion. This written notification must include the type of restraint used and any injuries occurring during or resulting from the restraint • Making reasonable efforts to contact the parent via telephone or computer electronic mail on the day of the incident • Obtaining the parent’s signed acknowledgement of receipt of the notification • Maintaining the documentation of the parent’s signed acknowledgement of notice

13. Schools shall: • Follow procedures for written incident reporting including, but not limited to: • Providing parents with a written incident report generated by the DOE web-based reporting system by mail within 3 days of any incident of restraint and seclusion • Obtaining the parent’s signed acknowledgement of receipt of the incident report • Maintaining the documentation of the parent’s signed acknowledgement of receipt of the incident

14. Schools shall: Make a minimum of two attempts to obtain written parent acknowledgment when parents fail to respond to initial notices or incident reports

15. The districts’ policies and procedures must be filed with the Bureau by January 31, 2012

16. Review of Definitions

17. Physical Restraint • Physical force that immobilizes or reduces the ability of a student to move his or her torso, arms, legs, or head freely. The term does not include a physical escort • Physical escort does not include a physical escort a temporary touching or holding of the hand, wrist, arm, shoulder, or back for the purpose of inducing a student who is acting out to walk to a safe location

18. Immobilization During Transport Transports that require physical force or exertion to propel a student into motion while immobilizing their arms and torso with one or more persons assisting should be reported as restraints

19. Prohibited Restraint School personnel may not use any restraints that restrict a student’s breathing

20. Seclusion • Seclusion is the involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room or area from which the student is physically prevented from leaving. • It does not include a time-out, which is a behavior management technique that is part of an approved program, involves the monitored separation of the student in a non‐locked setting, and is implemented for the purpose of calming.

21. Seclusion • School personnel may not close, lock or physically block a student in a room that is unlit • The room must meet the fire marshal code in Rule 69A-58.0084, F.A.C. • An electro-magnetic lock must be maintained via human contact at all times • An observable and unblocked view panel must be maintained at all times

22. Mechanical Restraint Mechanical restraint is the use of any device or equipment to restrict a student’s freedom of movement. This does not include devices prescribed by a medical professional and used as approved, such as: • Adaptive devices or mechanical supports used to achieve proper body position, balance or alignment • Vehicle safety restraints used during transport of a student in a moving vehicle • Restraints for medical immobilization • Orthopedically prescribed devices

23. Imminent Danger A risk of immediate physical harm to self or others. Imminent danger does not mean Implementing physical intervention techniques when a student is speaking in loud tones, or threatening others without the ability to carry out the physical threat, and not harming himself and/or others.

24. DOE Web-Based Reporting Restraint/seclusion incident reports are being updated within the data reporting system

25. Restraint Incident Report

26. The web-based incident reporting system is being updated to: • Assist personnel in being more specific and unified in the information given • Assist parents in understanding the events leading up to, surrounding and following the use of restraint on their child through the generated parent report

27. Included in the web-based reporting system: • Age, grade, ethnicity • Type of restraint used • Crisis management strategies used • Behavior warranting the use of the restraint or seclusion • Description of determination of imminent risk • Strategies used to prevent or de-escalate the behavior • Description of what occurred upon restraint ending

28. District level users who need to be added, deleted, or to make changes for their password, or username contact Marie Lacap and give your name, email address and title. • School level users need to contact the district to be added or to make changes to their password or username. • If you forget your password there is a place directly underneath the sign in for you to click that reads: “Retrieve Password” – Click it! Marie.Lacap@fldoe.org

29. Inquiring minds wanted to know…

30. Do these requirements apply to students receiving services in facilities other than public school buildings? • The statutory language does not exclude any specific locations • The requirements apply to all students with disabilities in any school program, including such settings as Department of Juvenile Justice facilities and residential programs • This applies to placement in a residential setting by a district and to placements made by other state agencies • Districts need to consider establishing reporting procedures when a student is in such a setting

31. Do these requirements apply to incidents of seclusion and restraint that occur outside of the school day? • The statutory language does not include parameters on time of day but does reference “school day” • Districts are advised to report all incidents of seclusion and restraint • For students in residential setting (e.g. DJJ) report incidents that occur during the designated “school time”

32. Do the requirements apply when seclusion and/or restraint are used by a school resource officer (SRO)? • The requirements do not exclude any specific personnel • If such an incident rises to the level of arrest, that would then constitute the end of seclusion and/or restraint • The school must still document and report the incident(s) of seclusion and/or restraint that preceded the arrest – even when the SRO used techniques other than the crisis management program used by the district • SRO’s name can be included in the incident report

33. Is there a minimum amount of time in seclusion or restraint that constitutes a reportable incident? • The law does not define any time period that constitutes an occurrence of seclusion or restraint • All occurrences must be documented, reported, and monitored • Web-based system was modified in fall 2010 to create a statement of < 1 minute

34. Restraint and Seclusion Incidents Restraint incidents cumulative through July 2011 • 10,323 incidents involving 3,508 students Seclusion incidents cumulative through July 2011 • 4,637 incidents involving 1332 students

35. QUESTIONS

36. Contact Information Cathy Bishop – Section Administrator for Instructional Support Systems Cathy.Bishop@fldoe.org Jenni Jenkins – Program Specialist for Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities Jenni.Jenkins@fldoe.org