State weighs limits on school 'timeouts,' restraints

DesMoinesRegister.com
By STACI HUPPshupp@dmreg.com
June 30, 2008

Iowa has joined a nationwide push to curb the use of physical force and "timeout" rooms in schools to discipline the most unruly students.

A proposal before the state Board of Education would limit how and when teachers can lock up children and would ban risky methods of restraint, including chokeholds.

Teachers also would be trained to use "positive" alternatives, such as talking through disputes with children.

"Teachers struggle with what's appropriate," said Judy Jeffrey, director of the Iowa Department of Education. "This really provides additional guidance."

State law allows school officials to hold down and confine children who are a threat to themselves or others, just as group homes do. But critics say educators overdo it sometimes.

In 2006, a Waukee couple complained that their 8-year-old daughter was alone in timeout for more than three hours because she refused to finish a reading assignment. Waukee school officials have said they did nothing wrong, but an administrative law judge disagreed. The district's discipline policy has not changed.

"The problem that some of my colleagues have noted is an educationally inappropriate use of seclusion and restraint - 'You were disrespectful; go into the timeout room,' versus 'You were disrespectful; how can we help you be more respectful?' " said Thomas Mayes, an attorney for the education department.

Dave Wilkerson, Waukee's superintendent of schools, said he's open to input from state officials but questions that such a specific policy will work. "To try to put a policy in place that's going to fit every situation, I think, is going to be impossible," he said.

Other states have reviewed timeout in the face of lawsuits against school districts, researchers say.At the same time, studies have shown teachers confine students for the wrong reasons.

A James Madison University survey of teachers at one Minnesota school found that teachers were more likely to lock up children for minor misbehavior.

"Without any guidance and policies, they make very poor choices, and kids suffer the consequences of it," said Joseph Ryan, a Clemson University professor who worked on the 2004 survey.

How often teachers lock up students in Iowa is difficult to track because the state lacks a clear reporting system. That would change under the state proposal, which calls on educators to keep records of every incident.

The proposal would be part of Iowa's corporal punishment law, which has been in place since 1991. The law covers public and private schools and area education agencies.The state proposal also says educators:

- Can't hold a child face down or otherwise use force that hampers a child's ability to breathe.
- Must provide "continuous" supervision of children in timeout rooms.
- Must get permission from an administrator to confine a child for longer than an hour.
- Can't lock up or restrain children for "minor infractions."
- Can lock the door of a timeout room only if they hold the lock in position, or the lock automatically releases when school alarms go off or power is cut off.
- Must use timeout rooms that are safe and suitable for children of varying sizes, ages and conditions.

"It's kind of frightening, frankly, to see that you have to be this specific," said Susan Myers, a mother who heads the Access for Special Kids Family Resource Center, a nonprofit advocacy group.

"I don't believe that teachers or building administrators set out to be unkind or cruel or harmful to children. In the rare occasion that that happens, it happens really because of ignorance as to what to do. This should help alleviate any instance of that."

Iowans can weigh in on the state proposal at a public hearing July 8. Members of the state education board are expected to vote on it this fall.

A spokeswoman at the state's largest teachers union said she wasn't familiar enough with the proposal to comment about it.

Doug and Eva Loeffler, the parents who complained about the Waukee school district timeout policy, could not be reached for comment last week.