School District Under Investigation For Restraint And Seclusion Use

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
April 29, 2008

FORT COLLINS, COLORADO--A Fort Collins school district is being investigated by Colorado's protection and advocacy system, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, and the Department of Regulatory Affairs over the use of restraints and seclusion on elementary students with intellectual disabilities.

The Legal Center for People with Disabilities and Older People released a report earlier this month from its first investigation, in which it found that Werner and Linton elementary schools, both in the Poudre School District, did not properly use, or properly document, instances when students were restrained or placed in "time-out."

In fact, according to Fort Collins Now, the agency found it difficult to make many conclusions about when, how, and why children were restrained or secluded because of the lack of documentation. "It becomes 'he said she said,' or a guessing game," said Thom Miller, Special Education Program Coordinator for The Legal Center.

Interviews with parents led investigators to believe that some students were being restrained more often then needed, were placed in "time-out" for long periods of times, and may have been locked into seclusion rooms and not monitored properly when they were inside.

The report did conclude that teachers used these techniques to punish or discipline students. While the state's education department only allows restraint or seclusion to keep students from hurting themselves or others, the district's policy allowed teachers to use them to maintain discipline.

District officials publicly disagreed with the Legal Center's findings, but said they would work on implementing some of its recommendations.