School district halts prone restraint for review
August 28, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti UPDATE: This story was updated on Aug. 29 to clarify the specific type of restraints that will be paused under the directive announced by school district leaders.
With the 2022-23 school year about to commence, Harwood’s new superintendent along with school board leaders have announced a halt to the use of prone restraint for the district to review its practices for handling behavior issues.
In a letter addressed to the community shared with local newspapers on Friday, Superintendent Mike Leichliter along with school board Chair Kristen Rodgers and Vice Chair Kelley Hackett note that state regulations allow for prone and supine restraints “in rare instances.” Data brought to the public’s attention earlier this year, however, revealed that instances of the tactics being used as well as seclusion of students in addressing behavioral issues have numbered in the hundreds in recent years.
“As a result, the superintendent has asked administrators and district mental health partners to put a moratorium on any use of prone and supine restraints effective immediately,” the Harwood Unified Union School District leaders write.
The superintendent emphasized that the pause regarding restraint pertains only to using prone and supine restraint — not the use of all restraints or seclusion. “The goal is to reduce the use of the other restraints but they will continue in plans,” he said.
They also announced the creation of a district task force to “assess the current need for restraint and seclusion and methods to reduce their use in the school district.”
In addition to Leichliter, members of this task force will be: Special Education Director Jon Berliner, Moretown Elementary School Principal Mandy Couturier, Brookside Primary School Co-Principal Chris Neville, Crossett Brook Middle School Assistant Principal Kellie Klassen, and Harwood Union High School Co-Principal Megan McDonough. Additional staff may be added if their input is needed, they said.
“An emphasis will be placed on both improving training for district staff in verbal de-escalation techniques as well as other training available with the goal of a further reduction in restraints, along with the reduction and/or elimination of the use of seclusion,” the district leaders said.
The task force will be asked to report to the school board on its progress in January and again in May.
A call for change
The issue of restraint and seclusion was raised in April by former school board member and Duxbury resident Brian Dalla Mura. At the time, he was working at Brookside Primary School as a special education teacher where he said he witnessed the use of prone restraints and seclusion with students in the school that serves preschoolers through fourth graders.
In public comments at school board meetings and letters to the board Dalla Mura highlighted statistics from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. Instances of these incidents are required to be reported to state and federal education agencies.
The school board and former Superintendent Brigid Nease declined to take any action last school year, saying instead the topic would be addressed later this year.
In the letter sent Friday from school district leaders, they acknowledge the high numbers of restraint and seclusion instances, pointing to the 2017-18 school year data. “The frequency of restraints, in general, in this school district was well above the state average (281 reported incidents at Brookside),” they wrote. (Data cites Thatcher Brook Primary School, the name of the school prior to 2021.)
The same data shows far fewer reports for other schools in the district and across the state, with many reporting no instances.
Leichliter and the board leaders note in their letter that newer data shows a decline with Brookside reporting 192 instances in the 2020-21 school year and 157 for the school year that ended in June. The comparison may be somewhat uneven given that in-person student attendance varied during those years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an interview Friday, Dalla Mura suggested that public attention on the issue may have had an impact on the recent drop as well. “I think awareness was a big driver of the decrease last year,” he said.
The school district leaders point out that schools are required to provide education to all students “including those with significant emotional and behavioral challenges.” Using restraint and seclusion is subject to strict state and federal rules, they said, and parents are involved in drafting plans that outline whether and if such methods would be used with their child in school.
The high prevalence of the practices at Brookside Primary School in particular prompted Dalla Mura’s call for action last spring. “When students are placed in prone restraint, they are held face down on the floor with their hands and arms behind their back by two adults,” he told the school board, pointing to research showing the method could cause serious injury or even death.
Local residents active with the Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition also joined the call for an end to the practices citing research that they may be used more frequently with students of color.
The issue also drew the attention of a national advocacy organization which weighed in, calling for an end to the practices in the Harwood district and in Vermont schools.
“The Harwood district can and should create a policy to eliminate life-threatening forms of restraint and the use of seclusion,” wrote Guy Stephens, founder and executive director of Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint based in Solomons, Maryland. His comments came in a commentary to local newspapers and to the HUUSD School Board.
Stephens pointed out that ending practices of prone restraint and seclusion would align with changes outlined in the Keeping All Students Safe Act (HR 3474), currently proposed federal legislation which has among its sponsors U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt.
Dalla Mura said has since left his position at Brookside after one year and has returned to working in the Winooski School District. He nonetheless was heartened by the decisions from Harwood district leaders to focus on this issue and push for change.
“I’m thrilled with that letter. This is such a big step,” he said of the communication from the district leaders. Referring specifically to the new superintendent, he added, “I think it shows that he’s willing to lead the district. I’m really, really hopeful.”
Support for statewide change
Likewise, state Rep. Theresa Wood, D-Waterbury, said she was similarly encouraged after having discussed the issue with Leichliter recently. “It’s not a simple thing. You need to have leadership from the top saying that we can do better and that’s what he’s doing,” she said, adding that she also has spoken to Dalla Mura. “I expressed appreciation to him for shining a light on this,” she said.
A former local school board chair herself, Wood has worked in state government in the Agency of Human Services overseeing programs for the elderly and disabled. She has most recently been vice chair of the House Committee on Human Services. She said she thinks it’s time for the Legislature to take up this issue. Efforts to ban the practices two decades ago fell short, she said, but since then, reporting has increased.
“We now have data,” she said. “Prone restraint should never be used. I’m willing to work on a bill to ban the use of prone restraint and seclusion on a statewide basis – that’s where this is headed.”
The Legislature doesn’t convene until January for a new biennium after November elections that will fill many seats with new lawmakers due to decisions by numerous incumbents not to run again. Leadership of legislative committees will be decided in January. Wood is running in a four-way race for two seats in the Washington-Chittenden district.
She said the key to passing legislation would be getting support among various stakeholders in addition to lawmakers such as associations of superintendents and school boards, state education agency leaders and teachers unions.
Leichliter said he is willing to work on broader efforts that could result in changes at the state level such as what Wood is contemplating, but his focus starts with Harwood schools. He said that although the topic is complicated, “This is a positive thing. There’s a lot of work to be done,” he said. “But I have confidence that with the team in place we can make progress on this.”
For example, changing policies and practices must involve training for school staff as well as the contracted professionals who work with students on behavioral issues, Leichliter noted.
“The emphasis on training is exactly what’s needed,” said Dalla Mura, whose current job involves staff coaching in the Winooski district around working with students with emotional and behavioral challenges.
Other steps outlined in the letter from Leichliter and the school board leaders include:
Asking that the state Agency of Education review the district’s practices of restraint and seclusion.
The school board working on a revised policy with input from school administrators, the Vermont School Boards Association and the district’s lawyers.
Consideration of financial support that may be needed to implement new recommendations.
Ultimately, Wood said, it will take time to create new policies. She said she appreciates the decision by Leichliter to make this a priority as he begins working in the Harwood school district.
“That this is his first big issue speaks to me. That he’s taking on something that impacts students is heartwarming. It will impact the educational quality for kids with disabilities and their teachers,” she said.
That point is the note Leichliter and the school board leaders end on in their letter on the subject: “We appreciate that this issue was raised with the school district and are committed to making improvements in our schools so that they are a caring and safe environment where all our children can learn and excel.”
The restraint and seclusion topic is on the agenda for the HUUSD School Board’s first meeting of the 2022-23 school year scheduled for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 31, in person in the Harwood library and via zoom. The meeting agenda and supporting materials are in the meeting packet online at HUUSD.org under Board.
Read the letter from the Harwood district leaders here.
Vermont Agency of Education information regarding Restraint and Seclusion can be found online here.