All students deserve to feel safe at school, and schools have a duty to keep students safe. The use of seclusion and restraint can put these two objectives into conflict.

Schools generally use restraint and seclusion in the name of school safety. These practices, however, can cause students who are subjected to them physical, emotional, and mental harm. Even if they don’t suffer an injury, students who are secluded or restrained may no longer feel safe at school.

In 2025, Colorado revised its laws on seclusion and restraint. These revisions are a good reminder of how quickly the law can change, and the Education Law Team at the LLF National Law Firm stays current on changes to the law and how that impacts our clients.

If your student attends a K-12 school in Colorado and has been secluded or restrained, contact the Education Law Team at the LLF National Law Firm. You and your student have options, up to and including suing your student’s school. Call us at 888-535-3686 or fill out an online form.

Restraint and Seclusion in Colorado

In 2025, Colorado revised the state’s laws on seclusion and restraint. These updates went into effect before the 2025-2026 school year. This means that no public school should be applying previous versions of the law.

Colorado’s seclusion and restraint laws cover public schools and charter schools. That private schools aren’t included doesn’t mean families won’t have a basis for taking legal action against a school. Similarly, public and charter schools may not follow the law or may misclassify seclusion or restraint as less-contentious practices.

The Education Law Team at the LLF National Law Firm works with families throughout the state, regardless of the school their child attends. We’ll help find grounds for pursuing legal action and protecting your student.

What Is Restraint?

Colorado defines restraint as any method or device used to limit a student’s voluntary freedom of movement. This includes chemical, mechanical, and physical restraint.

In limited circumstances, schools may use mechanical, physical, and prone restraint.

Chemical Restraint

Chemical restraint refers to giving a student drugs or medication to limit a student’s movements. This is different than giving a student a prescribed medication as directed by a medical professional.

Mechanical Restraint

Mechanical restraint refers to using a physical device to limit a student’s freedom of movement. In Colorado, mechanical restraint doesn’t include:

  • Any device recommended by a physician, occupational therapist, or physical therapist for a student’s use when that device is used as part of the student’s IEP or Section 504 plan.
  • Any protective device, such as a helmet, to prevent a student from engaging in self-harm when that device’s use is included in the student’s IEP team or Section 504 team.
  • Any adaptive or medical device recommended by a physician, occupational therapist, or physical therapist to facilitate instruction or therapy for a student.

When use of a device is included on a student’s IEP or 504 Plan, the use must align with what’s listed on a student’s IEP or 504 Plan.

Physical Restraint

Colorado uses a more detailed definition of physical restraint compared to other states. In Colorado, physical restraint is the use of bodily, physical force to limit a student’s voluntary freedom of movement for more than one minute.

Physical restraint is not:

  • Any physical intervention that lasts for less than one minute and when the invention is to protect the student, other members of the school community, or property;
  • Holding a student to calm or comfort them
  • Minimal physical contact to safely escorting a student between locations
  • Minimal physical contact to assist a student with a task

Prone, or facedown, restraint refers to a specific type of physical restraint. Schools may use it in limited situations.

What Is Seclusion?

Seclusion involves placing a student alone in a room or area. The student is unable to leave the space. In Colorado, seclusion is considered a type of restraint.

Seclusion differs from time-outs, which do not prevent a student from leaving an area. Time-outs remove a student from a situation, often for the purposes of calming the student.

When Schools Can Use Seclusion and Restraint in Colorado

Colorado’s limitations on the use of restraint cover the school day, activities, and events that occur on school grounds, participating in any off-campus activities, or attending any school-sponsored event. This limitation doesn’t apply to law enforcement or when a student openly possesses a deadly weapon.

School resource officers may use restraint or seclusion in emergencies when a student is a danger to themselves or others and:

  • Less restrictive alternatives were unsuccessful.
  • Less restrictive alternatives would be inappropriate or ineffective.

Only school staff who have been trained in restraint can restrain a student.

When schools use restraint, they must use it:

  • Only to prevent the continuation or renewal of the behavior that causes or threatens harm
  • Only for the period of time necessary to end the emergency or threat of harm
  • With physical restraint, only with the amount of force necessary to limit freedom or movement

For incidents involving property damage, school staff may only use restraint in situations when destroying property would cause a serious, probable, and imminent threat of harm to any member of the school community.

Requirements for Seclusion

If a student is placed in seclusion, school staff must continually monitor the student. Students cannot be secluded in any room or area that is used for storage, custodial purposes, or office space.

The room or area the student is in must be free of items that could harm a student and must have at least one window through which school staff can monitor the student when the door is closed. Alternatively, schools may monitor a student with a video camera.

Limitations on Restraint and Seclusion

Colorado includes additional limitations on how and when schools can use seclusion and restraint. Schools cannot do anything that would limit or affect a student’s ability to breathe. In general, schools cannot restrain students for longer than fifteen minutes unless releasing them would be unsafe.

At no point can schools use restraint or seclusion:

  • To punish or discipline a student
  • As part of a treatment or behavior modification plan
  • To retaliate against a student

When a student is secluded, they must have reasonable access to bathroom facilities.

Protect Your Student

Your child has the right to attend school free of fear of physical, mental, or emotional injury. Seclusion and restraint don’t make schools safer, but they can negatively impact your child’s ability to get an education.

If your child attends a K-12 school in Colorado and has been secluded or restrained, contact the Education Law Team at the LLF National Law Firm. We’re here to assist you and support your family. Call us at 888-535-3686 or fill out an online form.

Restraint and Seclusion

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