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ISBE announces investigations, bans isolated seclusions

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Illinois

* Press release…

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) announced today that it will take emergency action to end the use of isolated seclusion in Illinois schools. ISBE also will take steps to improve data collection on all instances of time-out and physical restraint in schools, as well as immediately begin investigating known cases of isolated seclusion to take appropriate disciplinary and corrective action.

“Isolated seclusion will end now; it traumatizes children, does lasting damage to the most vulnerable and violates the most deeply held values of my administration and the State of Illinois. The use of this unacceptable practice in districts around the state for several years is appalling, and I am demanding complete and immediate accountability,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “I have directed ISBE to take immediate action to ban isolated seclusion in Illinois schools, investigate any case where isolated seclusion was used illegally in the past, and mandate strict reporting on any form of time-out moving forward. I also pledge to work closely with the General Assembly to take additional steps to codify these emergency rules and take any additional steps to protect all the children of this state.”

The emergency action follows the publication of an investigation into the misuse of isolated time-out and physical restraint in Illinois schools.

“The data and stories from students and parents are appalling, inexcusable, and deeply saddening,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carmen I. Ayala. “The practices of time out and physical restraint have been misused and overused to a shocking extent; this must stop today. ISBE condemns the unlawful use of isolated seclusion, and we will take immediate steps to ensure the traumatic treatment described in the investigation never happens to another Illinois student.”

ISBE will ban the use of isolated seclusion in any educational entity serving public school students in Illinois. ISBE also will institute a new data collection to increase accountability and transparency for all instances of time-out and physical restraint, among other changes detailed below.

Unlawful use of time-out and restraint includes using these practices as a form of punishment. Time-out and restraint are lawful only when used to protect the safety of students and staff in certain rare crisis situations. ISBE will take action against any educational entity serving public school students that is violating these regulations.

“As educators, we work hard to make our schools trauma-responsive – but first and foremost, our schools must be trauma-free,” continued Ayala. “Our schools must be places where all students feel and are safe. We welcome additional feedback and dialogue as we work together to address this urgent problem and implement stronger protections statewide for students’ mental, physical, and social-emotional health.”

The Illinois Education Association (IEA), which represents more than 135,000 members, supports ISBE’s emergency actions.

“The IEA supports ISBE’s swift and decisive response to the reports of unlawful and egregious misuse of time-out and physical restraint in Illinois schools,” said IEA President Kathi Griffin. “The IEA supports banning the practice of isolated seclusion; this practice inflicts trauma upon children and has no place in Illinois schools. The IEA is committed to fully engaging in the rulemaking and legislative processes to institute the necessary protections for all students’ physical, mental, and social-emotional health.”

ISBE will take the following steps impacting all public schools, cooperatives, private special education facilities, and other educational entities serving public school students:

• File emergency rules today to:

o Ban all isolated seclusion practices;
o Allow time-out with a trained adult in the room and with an unlocked door, but only for therapeutic reasons or protecting the safety of students and staff;
o Ban physical restraints that could impair a student’s ability to breathe or speak normally, and institute strict parameters on when physical restraint is allowed;
o Require all educational entities to submit data to ISBE on all instances of physical restraint or time-out used during the current (2019-20) and past two school years (2018-19 and 2017-18);
o Require all educational entities to submit data to ISBE within 48 hours of any instance of physical restraint or time-out;
o Eliminate the option for parents or guardians to waive notification of instances of physical restraint or time-out.

• Issue an advisory notice today to school districts, superintendents, and special education cooperatives reiterating the emergency rules and guidance.

• Create a required State form for school districts to use to document and to provide thorough information to parents and guardians when time-out or physical restraint is used.

• Add a physical inspection of time-out spaces to the monitoring conducted by Regional Offices of Education.

• Issue updated guidance and provide technical assistance to the field on appropriate uses of time-out and physical restraint.

Additionally, the Governor’s Office will file a complaint on behalf of all known cases of isolated seclusion to expedite the investigative process and require a report to be returned within 60 days of the notification. ISBE will make determinations whether the educational entity violated federal or state special education requirements.

ISBE will work with lawmakers and stakeholders on legislative action and will issue further communication as these steps are taken.

Discuss.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:24 pm

Comments

Yeah team.

Administrators should lose their licenses over this.

Comment by Thomas Paine Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:31 pm
If they knew all this was coming, having this in place to announce… is that about right here?

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:33 pm
===having this in place to announce===

No. This has all been put in place since yesterday when the governor and his staff read the story.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:34 pm
Kudos to the reporters who exposed this

Comment by Stu Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:34 pm
Looks like a good list. Glad they’re requiring all districts to report on what they did, considering many didn’t cooperate with the reporters.

Credit goes to the journalists who investigated this.

Comment by Robert the Bruce Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:36 pm
“the Governor’s Office will file a complaint on behalf of all known cases of isolated seclusion to expedite the investigative process and require a report to be returned within 60 days of the notification. ISBE will make determinations whether the educational entity violated federal or state special education requirements.”

Has the Governor’s office or ISBE come up with a rough estimate as the size of the potential civil liabilities that may exist due to these violations?

Comment by Occam Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:37 pm
===come up with a rough estimate===

A bit early for that.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:39 pm
=== “I have directed ISBE to take immediate action” ===

Also, that shouldn’t have been necessary.

In Pritzker’s own words, the polcy-to-date at ISBE has not reflected the values of his administration or the state in a very obvious way.

Pritzker needs capable policy advisors and problem solvers embedded in the chain of command at state agencies.

People who have the sense not to wave the Confederate flag, handcuff foster kids or lock students with disabilities in padded rooms indefinitely.

He does not have that.

Comment by Thomas Paine Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:40 pm
Stu, you are absolutely right. They did a magnificent job over a period of many months. And they have achieved very fast results. Kudos all around to them.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:41 pm
=== No. This has all been put in place since yesterday when the governor and his staff read the story.===

Ah. Thanks. Trying to grasp the timeline.

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:42 pm
=== No. This has all been put in place since yesterday when the governor and his staff read the story. ===

If yesterday was the first the Governor’s office heard of this, it proves my point.

Comment by Thomas Paine Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:44 pm
=== If yesterday was the first the Governor’s office heard…===

Prolly why I “asked” as I did too…

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:49 pm
Pro Publica for the win.

The same day Ferro and TRONC are in the news, Pro Publica reminds us what real local, long form journalism looks like.

Maybe take tomorrow’s coffee money and send it to Pro Publica today.

Thousands of Illinois children will thank you.

Comment by Scott Cross for President Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:50 pm
@Willy -

To the timeline: the Superintendent’s statement yesterday was an attempt to defend the lawful use of isolation rooms while the governor’s office was still digesting information it was apparently seeing for the first time because they were kept out of the loop.

Which means the statement was also not cleared with the governor’s communications office in the heat of a media storm.

Seems to me the governor’s office has a rogue agency on their hands. Not sure what the appropriate course of action is.

Comment by Thomas Paine Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:54 pm
https://www.iasb.com/getmedia/b2538169-9cea-4a85-b47a-88b7dfbb1d83/confpreview_2019.pdf

If you really want to an end to this quickly, the ISBE should insert itself in an effective way into the III conference starting tomorrow - over 4000 Illinois school board members and school district administrators will be in attendance representing 600+ (close to 75%) of Illinois school districts. Let’s issue more than a directive. Let’s actually do something. C’mon Man!!

Comment by Former Candidate on the Ballot Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 1:54 pm
I only hope someone makes sure this directive is being followed

Comment by Just a citizen Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 2:01 pm
Who couldn’t be inspired by this announcement ?

Comment by Steve Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 2:05 pm
Great to see this action being taken.

Having a child that is non verbal is Downs Syndrome and autistic, my wife and live in fear of what could happen to her at school and being transported to her special needs classes.

A real concern many parents of special needs children now have is while active shooter drills are being utilized in most schools, special needs children tend to shut down in situations that are not part of the normal routine of the day. For that reason, most special needs classed don’t take part in the drills. No of us have an answer to this issue.

Comment by Give Me A Break Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 2:08 pm
Scott Cross - good idea. I just went to their web site and it takes about one minute to donate.

Comment by Rachel Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 2:12 pm
Just a citizen -

Exactly! Unless you accelerate the message and invoke the authority of local control - in this case the local school board - this becomes another “Paper Tiger”. Remember, there are already laws on the books to address some of these issues. Those laws may not be perfect, but they obviously were not being followed. In my opinion the ISBE President should be making a speech at the IASB delegates meeting about this issue.

Comment by Former Candidate on the Ballot Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 2:12 pm
The great work that was done here by everyone and Rich giving his platform and voice to it… well done doesn’t come close to the kudos needed that are so deserved.

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 2:16 pm
–Seems to me the governor’s office has a rogue agency on their hands. Not sure what the appropriate course of action is.–

Ask just about anyone circling the wagons at ISBE that it’s an agency that has been run renegade for a long time. Too many fiefdoms and way too much arrogance on the part of the firmly entrenched. For the outsiders looking in, there is hope that this will cause a massive shake-up and reorganization that is sorely needed. And not just moving bodies but bringing in new blood to stir up a stagnant agency.

Comment by Wylie Coyote Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 3:15 pm
Glad to see the emergency rule. Additionally, many of these children could benefit from an individualized behavior modification plan that has been developed after observation by a specialist. Sometimes it’s also necessary for the teachers and aides so that they can be instructed on how their own actions may escalate a situation and to better understand why the behavior is occurring and how to redirect or extinguish it. I’d like to see ISBE promote this option as a plan for how to handle these situations in the future.

Comment by Laura Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 3:44 pm
I work at a most restrictive special education school, where the next placement options are residential or jail for students if they are not able to succeed with our copious supports. I 1000% agree that this should be banned if misused. However, I am truly scared for my students and staff. There are extreme crisis situations at my school that call for ITO’s to be needed in crisis plans (and parents agree to this). We are promoting the teaching replacement behaviors, but what do we do during the “interim” of training when these SEVERE behaviors are still occurring and the kids are a danger to themselves, other students, and staff.

On another note, curious to see if the data on the increase in 911 calls will be.

Comment by Scared special ed teacher Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 4:27 pm
A few thoughts. I work at a most restrictive special education school, where the next placement options are residential or jail for students if they are not able to succeed with our copious supports. I 1000% agree that this should be banned if misused. However, I am truly scared for my students and staff. There are extreme crisis situations at my school that call for ITO’s to be needed in crisis plans (and parents agree to this). We are promoting the teaching replacement behaviors, but what do we do during the “interim” of training when these SEVERE behaviors are still occurring and the kids are a danger to themselves, other students, and staff.

On another note, curious to see if the data on the increase in 911 calls will be.

Comment by Scared special ed teacher Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 4:29 pm
Kudos to ProPublica and Tribune for blowing the doors wide open on this story. Cue lawsuits against school boards, teachers, and staff for using these rooms and restraints as punishment. Gov. Pritzker, please appoint a new ISBE director, and house clean the agency (who either didn’t know or care about the depth of the problem).

Comment by revvedup Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 5:05 pm
ISBE does not hire leaders who seek meaningful change or who focus too much on students or accountability. Most people in the special education department would not be knowledgeable regarding how special education students are actually doing on the most recent State report card, for example. ISBE’s model is to be the friends and tsupports of the school districts and coops. Meaningful monitoring in special education for following federal and state laws has not been taking place for about 4 years. ISBE needs to see students and families as part of the public that they serve.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 5:12 pm
What Kaskaskia did was horrid. Students on the spectrum require unique interventions that are effective and respectful. That being said ISBE and these outraged legislators have no concept what it’s like to be on the receiving end of an aggressive student who is twice your size. This happens every day throughout the state. Why not look at stats on teachers injured, threatened, or who quit out of fear. Generalizing a lousy district to the whole state and generating policy from that situation stinks. Teaching is tough. Walk a mile in my shoes.

Comment by Stormsw7706 Wednesday, Nov 20, 19 @ 10:03 pm