Current restraint and seclusion law in Florida requires that each school district develop and implement a plan to prevent and reduce use of restraint and seclusion. Visit our new Restraint and Seclusion in Schools disability topic page to learn more about restraint and seclusion law in Florida.
When R/S is prevented, schools are safer for everyone - students, teachers and staff. If you have expertise in this area or are interested in advocacy on this topic, now is the time to get involved at the local level. Call your District ESE Director to learn more.
This excerpt from Florida law describes what school districts should currently be working on:
SCHOOL DISTRICT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES.— (a) Each school district shall develop policies and procedures that are consistent with this section and that govern the following:
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Incident-reporting procedures.
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Data collection and monitoring, including when, where, and why students are restrained or secluded; the frequency of occurrences of such restraint or seclusion; and the prone or mechanical restraint that is most used.
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Monitoring and reporting of data collected.
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Training programs relating to manual or physical restraint and seclusion.
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The district’s plan for selecting personnel to be trained.
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The district’s plan for reducing the use of restraint and seclusion particularly in settings in which it occurs frequently or with students who are restrained repeatedly, and for reducing the use of prone restraint and mechanical restraint. The plan must include a goal for reducing the use of restraint and seclusion and must include activities, skills, and resources needed to achieve that goal. Activities may include, but are not limited to:
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Additional training in positive behavioral support and crisis management;
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Parental involvement;
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Data review;
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Updates of students’ functional behavioral analysis and positive behavior intervention plans;
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Additional student evaluations;
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Debriefing with staff;
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Use of schoolwide positive behavior support; and
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Changes to the school environment.
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