The Madison School District, where the issue has drawn public scrutiny in recent years, reported using restraint or seclusion 1,259 times on students during the 2019-20 school year, including 233 incidents involving students with disabilities. On a per-pupil basis, that ranked 40th among the state’s school districts.
The report is the first of its kind provided on a statewide scale in Wisconsin after 2019 revisions to a decade-old law. Public schools, private schools participating in a voucher program for students with disabilities and private schools where students are placed by public districts are now required to report the information.
State law defines restraint as a restriction that immobilizes or reduces the ability of students to freely move their torso, arms, legs or head, and seclusion as the involuntary confinement of students, apart from other students, in a room or area from which the student is physically prevented from leaving.
More than half of Wisconsin schools restrained or isolated students to control their behavior during the last school year, according to data released by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) this week.
The data, which was collected because of changes to the state law on restraint and seclusion, also shows that elementary school students and students with disabilities were more likely to be restrained or secluded. The 30 schools that reported the most seclusion incidents were all elementary schools.
Joanne Juhnke, advocacy specialist in special education with Disability Rights Wisconsin, said the practices are more common for lower grades because of the students’ size and the “relative ease of physically overwhelming” smaller children. However, it comes with a particular cost to elementary school-aged kids.
“These are happening with young children, children with whom this is an impressionable time, and can cause emotional harm, to be physically overpowered or shut in a blank little room that they’re prevented from getting out of,” she said.
State law defines restraint as a restriction that immobilizes or reduces the ability of students to freely move their torso, arms, legs or head; and seclusion as the involuntary confinement of students apart from other students in a room or area that they are physically prevented from leaving. It’s meant to be used as a last resort, and to manage a crisis rather than as a disciplinary measure, said Barb Van Haren, assistant state superintendent for the Division for Learning Supports at DPI.