Nearly a decade after Congress first considered restrictions on the use of restraint and seclusion in schools, a new report finds that rules continue to vary significantly from state to state. Thirty states have “meaningful” laws on the books limiting restraint and seclusion among all children and 39 have some variety of restrictions specifically for kids with disabilities, according to an analysis published by the advocacy organization the Autism National Committee.
That’s up markedly from 2009 when just nine states had laws affecting all students and 21 had laws related to restraint and seclusion of those with disabilities. A series of reports detailing hundreds of instances of abusive and even deadly uses of the practices led the U.S. House of Representatives to approve sweeping legislation in 2010 imposing first-ever national standards on restraint and seclusion in schools. However, the Senate failed to pass the bill and federal efforts have been stalled ever since.