Time Runs Out For School Restraint, Seclusion Bill

[The Straight Story]

Time Runs Out For School Restraint, Seclusion Bill

Efforts to establish federal limits on the use of restraint and seclusion in the nation’s schools appear to be dead, at least for now, disability advocates are acknowledging.

In a meeting last week, Senate staffers who worked on legislation designed to curb the use of restraint and seclusion told representatives of several disability advocacy groups and education organizations that time had run out and the bill would not be voted on before the end of the year, according to a Senate aide and advocates who attended.

The news comes nearly a year after lawmakers introduced legislation that would have established first ever federal oversight of restraint and seclusion tactics in schools following a series of reports highlighting hundreds of cases of abusive and even deadly uses of the practices.

“Our assumption is that the new Congress will be our target for this,” said Barb Trader, executive director of TASH who’s taken the lead in advocating for the measure. “There’s simply just not time.”

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2010/11/17/time-runs-out-restraint-seclusion/11283/