Schools have a duty to keep students and other members of school communities safe. Students should feel safe attending school.
While seclusion and restraint are said to help schools maintain a safe environment, the reality is that these practices can result in mental, physical, and emotional harm to students subjected to these practices. Despite this, New Jersey’s laws that limit seclusion and restraint only apply to students with disabilities.
All students deserve to feel safe at school. If your student has been secluded or restrained, you have options, up to and including suing the school. Contact the Education Law Team at the LLF National Law Firm at 888-535-3686 or fill out an online form.
Restraint and Seclusion in New Jersey
In 2018, New Jersey revised its laws on seclusion and restraint. These laws define physical restraint, seclusion, and timeouts. These laws generally prohibit the use of seclusion or restraint on students with disabilities except in emergency situations.
Even with restrictions on the use of seclusion and restraint, parents or guardians may wish to discuss, during an IEP or 504 meeting, how to proactively address and prevent behavioral issues.
The areas that these laws don’t cover leave school districts and families dealing with considerable gray areas. School district policies may cover these gaps, but they may also follow New Jersey state laws without any additions.
Covered Students
The 2018 laws apply to students with disabilities who attend either public schools or private schools that are approved for students with disabilities. In other words, students without disabilities and students who attend non-approved private schools aren’t covered.
That New Jersey law focuses on students with disabilities isn’t surprising. Despite accounting for less than 15 percent of the overall student population nationwide, students with disabilities account for 75 percent of reported seclusion and restraint incidents. That the Garden State seeks to protect students with disabilities is good. The current laws, unfortunately, fail to address the fact that one in four students who do not have a disability are subjected to seclusion and restraint.
This doesn’t mean that a student cannot file a lawsuit after being secluded or restrained by their school. It simply means that different laws may apply. For example, a school’s use of seclusion or restraint may amount to corporal punishment, which New Jersey prohibits except in extremely limited circumstances.
Whatever your situation, if your student has been secluded or restrained, you likely have legal options. The Education Law Team at the LLF National Law Firm works with our clients to find legal grounds to protect their students’ rights.
What Is Restraint?
Restraint refers to limiting a student’s movement. There are three general types of restraint:
- Physical restraint, which involves using a person’s body to restrict another person’s movements
- Mechanical restraint, which involves the use of devices or other equipment to limit someone’s movements
- Chemical restraint, which involves using non-prescribed drugs or other medications to control a person’s movements
Of the three, New Jersey law only defines physical restraint, which refers to immobilizing or reducing a student’s ability to move all or part of their body. The state has no formal definitions for mechanical or chemical restraint.
Schools may use restraint on students with disabilities only when all of the following conditions are met:
- School staff use physical restraint only in an emergency, which means a student is exhibiting behavior that places the student or others in immediate physical danger.
- A student isn’t restrained in the prone, or facedown, position.
- Exception: If a school has, in writing, authorization from a student’s primary care physician to use prone restraint.
- Staff members who restrain a student have been trained by a qualified training organization on safe restraint techniques.
- Schools or qualified organizations must review and update this training at least once a year.
- School staff must immediately inform parents or guardians that a student has been physically restrained by either phone or electronic communication. Within 48 hours, schools must follow this with a full written report of the incident.
- School staff must continuously visually monitor every incident of physical restraint.
- School staff must document every incident of physical restraint in sufficient detail.
- This information must be complete enough to develop or revise a student’s behavior intervention plan (BIP).
New Jersey recommends that schools use positive behavior supports as a way to minimize the use of physical restraint.
What Is Seclusion?
New Jersey defines seclusion as the involuntarily confining a student in a room or area from which a student cannot leave. School staff doesn’t have to physically move a student for it to qualify as seclusion. If, for example, a student is in a classroom and school staff remove all other students from the classroom that may qualify as seclusion.
When a school secludes a student, school staff members must ensure that all of the following conditions are met:
- School staff use seclusion only in an emergency, which means a student is exhibiting behavior that places the student or others in immediate physical danger.
- School staff must continuously visually monitor every incident of seclusion.
- School staff must document every incident of seclusion in sufficient detail.
- This information must be complete enough to develop or revise a student’s behavior intervention plan (BIP).
New Jersey recommends that schools use positive behavior supports as a way to minimize the use of seclusion. These supports can be included in a behavior intervention plan (BIP).
What Are Timeouts?
New Jersey separates seclusion from timeouts. Timeouts are a behavior management technique where a student is placed in a non-locked room or area as a way to calm them. The student is monitored throughout the timeout.
Behavioral Supports and Interventions
Positive Behavior Support, or Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), is an evidence-based framework intended to support students’ behavioral, academic, social, emotional, and mental health. The goal is to provide students with the support they require to minimize behavioral and disciplinary issues.
Clifton Public Schools provides its students and families with an overview of its PBIS program. A partnership between the New Jersey Department of Education Office of Special Education and The Boggs Center, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, provides training and professional development to help support school staff in implementing PBIS in New Jersey Schools.
If and when a student is subjected to seclusion or restraint, one of the first questions to ask is if and when the school has a PBIS program to help prevent these types of incidents.
Protect Your Student
Restraint and seclusion can cause serious, long-term harm to students. That students with disabilities receive some legal protection is good, although it doesn’t mean a school may not overstep in using either physical restraint or seclusion on a student with disabilities.
Students who do not have disabilities or who attend a non-covered school may still have legal options to address the harm caused by seclusion or restraint.
All students deserve to feel safe at school. If your student has been restrained or secluded, the Education Law Team at the LLF National Law Firm can help. Call us at 888-535-3686 or fill out an online form.