Search Policies Based on Keyword
C400-R – FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP COMMUNITY SCHOOL CORPORATION RESTRAINT AND SECLUSION PLAN
Every effort should be made to prevent the need to restrain or place students in seclusion. However, the Franklin Township Community School Corporation (FTCSC) recognizes that at times it may be necessary for staff to use restraint or seclusion when other interventions are ineffective and there an imminent risk of injury. The use of mechanical or chemical restraint of students is prohibited. Restraint and seclusion should not be used as a means of punishment or convenience. All behavioral interventions used must ensure the right of all students to be treated with dignity and respect.
The FTCSC supports the promotion and training of appropriate student behavior as part of the curriculum framework used throughout our district. To ensure that all students are treated with dignity and respect this Restraint and Seclusion Plan is provided to ensure strategies for the use of physical restraint and seclusion of students are used safely and in a manner that is in the best interests of the student. All staff will use prevention, positive behavior intervention and support and conflict de-escalation strategies to eliminate or minimize the need for use of chemical restraint, mechanical restraint, physical restraint and seclusion. School staff shall promote and teach students appropriate behavior and shall model appropriate behavior with their own conduct.
This Restraint and Seclusion Plan applies to all students, regardless of the existence of a disability. Any behavioral intervention, including any physical restraint or seclusion, must be consistent with any applicable behavioral intervention plan (BIP), or individualized education program (IEP), as well as with this Restraint and Seclusion Plan.
Definitions
Term: Aversion or Aversive Intervention
Definition: Means any of the following actions if used to attempt to address, eliminate, reduce or discourage maladaptive behavior of a student through any of the following: (1) The use of noxious odors and/or tastes, water and other mists or sprays, blasts of air, electric shock, corporal punishment, and/or verbal or mental abuse. (2) Requiring a student to perform exercise under forced conditions if the student is required to perform the exercise because s/he exhibited a behavior that is related to a disability; the exercise is harmful to the health of the student, or the nature of the exercise or a student’s disability prevents the student from safely engaging in the exercise. (3) Depriving the student of necessities needed to sustain health or comfort of a student, regardless of the length of the deprivation, including the denial or substantial delay in the provision of food or liquid at a time when it is customarily served.
Term: Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP)
Definition: Means a positive focused plan that is agreed upon by a student’s case conference committee (CCC) and incorporated into a student’s individualized education program (IEP) per the rules of the Indiana State Board of Education at 511 IAC 7-32-10. At a minimum the BIP describes the following: (1) The pattern of behavior that impedes the student’s learning or the learning of others. (2) The purpose or function of the behavior as identified in a functional behavioral assessment (FBA). (3) The positive interventions and supports, and other strategies, to: (A) address the behavior; and (B) maximize consistency of implementation across people and settings in which the student is involved. (4) If applicable, the skills that will be taught and monitored in an effort to change a specific pattern of behavior of the student. The BIP seeks to maximize consistency of implementation across people and settings in which the student is involved.
Term: Case Conference Committee (CCC)
Definition: Refers to the group of individuals with direct knowledge of the student per the rules of the Indiana State Board of Education at 511 IAC 7-32-12.
Term: Chemical Restraint
Definition: Refers to the administration of a drug or medication to manage a student’s behavior or restrict a student’s freedom of movement that is not a standard treatment or dosage for the student’s medical or psychiatric condition.
Term: Corporal Punishment
Definition: Means the intentional infliction of physical pain including, without limitation, hitting, pinching, punching, striking, striking the back of the hand, or paddling.
Term: Crisis Intervention Training
Definition: Refers to specialized training provided to staff members which addresses how to deal with aggressive, violent or out of control behaviors. It includes specific techniques for seclusion.
Term: Crisis Response Team
Definition: Refers to a team of staff members who are trained and certified in responding to a student who is in crisis. The team has building-level training for how to respond as a unit to a crisis situation. All members of the team are fully informed of this Restraint and Seclusion Plan as well as the Board Policy on Use of Restraint and Seclusion and the Procedures for Seclusion and Restraint in FTCSC.
Term: De-escalation
Definition: Refers to causing a situation to become more controlled, calm and less dangerous, thus lessening the risk for injury to someone.Term: Emergency
Definition: Means a situation in which immediate intervention is necessary to protect the physical safety of a student or others from an imminent threat of physical injury to the student or others, and where staff trained in crisis intervention are not present to assist.
Term: Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA)
Definition: Refers to a systematic, ongoing process that uses data to identify patterns in the student’s behavior and the purpose or function of the behavior for the student.
Term: Imminent
Definition: Means likely to happen right away, within a matter of minutes.
Term: Individualized Educational Program (IEP)
Definition: Refers to a written document prepared by a student’s case conference committee (CCC) which meets the requirements outlined by the Indiana State Board of Education at 511 IAC 7-32-48.
Term: Mechanical Restraint
Definition: Means the use of (1) a mechanical device, (2) a material, or (3) equipment attached or adjacent to a student’s body that the student cannot remove and that restricts the freedom of movement of all or part of the student’s body or restricts normal access to the student’s body. The term does not include (1) a mechanical device, (2) a material, or (3) equipment that is used as authorized by a licensed physician or other qualified health care professional. The term does not include a bus harness or other safety equipment that is used to retrain a student during transport when the harness or safety equipment is necessary for safety purposes as provided under 575 IAC 1.
Term: Physical Restraint
Definition: Means physical contact between a school employee and a student in which the student unwillingly participates and that involves the use of a manual hold to restrict freedom of movement of all or part of a student’s body or to restrict normal access to the student’s body. The term does not include (1) briefly holding a student without undue force in order to calm or comfort the student, or to prevent unsafe behavior, such as running into traffic or engaging in a physical altercation, (2) physical escort, or (3) physical contact intended to gently assist or prompt a student in performing a task or to guide or assist a student from one area to another.
Term: Positive Behavioral Instructional Supports (PBIS)
Definition: Refers to a school building’s comprehensive written plan that uses evidence based practices and data driven decision-making to improve school climate and culture. Each plan also includes a range of systematic and individualized strategies to reinforce desired student behavior and diminish reoccurrence of problem behaviors in students to achieve improved academic and social outcomes and increase learning for all.
Term: Prone Physical Restraint
Definition: Refers to a student being held face down lying on their stomach on a horizontal surface such as the floor.
Term: Seclusion
Definition: Means the confinement of a student alone in a room or area from which the student physically is prevented from leaving. The term does not include a supervised time-out or a scheduled break, as described in a student’s IEP, in which an adult is continuously present in the room with the student.
Term: Serious Bodily Injury (SBI)
Definition: Means injury to a person that creates substantial risk of death or that causes permanent disfigurement, unconsciousness, extreme pain, or permanent or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member or organ.
Term: Substantial Risk
Definition: Refers to a situation where there is serious, imminent threat of bodily harm and where there exists the immediate ability to enact such harm to self and/or to others.
Term: Supervising Staff Member
Definition: Refers to the Crisis Prevention trained and certified staff member who is part of the building level Crisis Response Team who has been called in to address a student in crisis.
Term: Supine Physical Restraint
Definition: Refers to a student being held face up on their back on a horizontal surface such as the floor.
Term: Time Out
Definition: Means a behavior reduction procedure in which access to reinforcement is withdrawn for a certain period of time. Time-out occurs when the ability of a student to receive normal reinforcement in the school environment is restricted.
Term: Verbal or Mental Abuse
Definition: Means actions or utterances that are intended to cause and may actually cause severe emotional distress to a student.
Overview
Every effort should be made to prevent the need to restrain or place students in seclusion. Each building within the FTCSC must have a Crisis Response Team (CRT) that is trained in positive behavioral instructional supports and de-escalation techniques and, whose members are trained in methods of crisis prevention. The CRT will have building specific procedures in place to ensure every effort is taken to prevent the need for restraint and/or seclusion of a student. However, the FTCSC recognizes that at times it may become necessary for employees to use restraints and/or seclusion when there is imminent risk of injury to the student or others. Restraint or seclusion should not be used as a means of punishment or convenience. Every behavioral intervention used must ensure the right of all students to be treated with dignity and respect, and free of abuse.
When there are repeated uses of restraint and/or seclusion with a given student, multiple uses within the same classroom, or multiple uses by the same individual, an administrative review and, if appropriate, revision of strategies currently in place to address the behaviors triggering the use of restraint and/or seclusion must be conducted. The Chief Special Education Officer will be responsible for monitoring documented reports of restraint and/or seclusion and conducting an administrative review of any repeated uses of restraint and/or seclusion.
Every instance in which seclusion and/or physical restraint is used must be carefully, continuously and visually monitored to ensure the appropriateness of its use and safety of the student, other students, teachers, and other personnel. Immediately after the student has calmed down following the use of restraint or seclusion, a staff member not involved in the incident shall examine the student to determine if the student has been injured. The building principal or designee shall attempt to verbally report every instance of restraint or seclusion to the parent/guardian of the student on the same school day of the incident. The principal or designee shall also offer the parents/guardians the opportunity to request a meeting regarding the incident.
As soon as practical after an incident of restraint or seclusion, the principal or designee will debrief with at least one of the staff members and the student involved in the seclusion or restraint to discuss the procedures used and ways to avoid the need for restraint or seclusion. When seclusion and/or physical restraint is used on a student, the use shall be documented in Infinite Campus (as a Behavior Incident Report) per the Procedures for the use of Restraint or Seclusion in FTCSC. This written Incident Report[1] of the seclusion and/or restraint of the student must be completed as soon as practicable but no later than one (1) school day after the seclusion and/or restraint is used.
When seclusion and/or restraint is used, within three (3) school days of the occurrence, the principal will provide the student’s parents/guardian with a written, detailed account of the incident and a copy of the account will be placed in the student’s educational record. The building principal send a copy of the Chief Special Education Officer of the incident no later than four (4) working days after the seclusion and/or restraint is used.
- Use of Physical Restraint
A student shall not be subjected to physical restraint except as specifically authorized in this Plan. Restraint of any kind shall not be used in any instance in which the sole justification is to punish the student for a violation of a directive from a staff member, violation of student conduct rule, the student’s use of vulgar or profane language, a verbal threat, or a display of disrespect for another person. A verbal threat shall not be considered as sufficient justification for the use of physical restraint unless a student has or has immediate access to the means of acting on the threat.
Restraint may be used only as a last resort safety procedure after a less restrictive procedure has been implemented without success and only in a situation in which there is an imminent risk of injury to the student, other students, school employees, visitors at the school or others. A restraint may be used only for a short time period or until the imminent risk of injury has passed. A restraint shall only be implemented by staff members who have successfully completed a research-based method for crisis prevention (CP) training and it must be implemented in accordance with the Procedures for the use of Restraint or Seclusion in FTCSC. In rare, clearly unavoidable, emergency circumstances, non CP trained staff may employ a restraining procedure with a student when CP trained personnel are not available. However, assistance from CP trained personnel should be sought immediately. Prone or supine forms of restraint are not authorized by the FTCSC. When a student has a known medical or physical condition that would make restraint procedures dangerous for the student, they shall not be implemented. Application of physical restraint to a student with a disability must take into consideration the student’s IEP and any BIP that has been developed for the student.
A restraint shall not be implemented with the intention of using physical pain to achieve control of a student’s behavior or punish misconduct, and a restraint of any kind shall never be applied in a manner that restricts a student’s blood flow or respiration. Failure of a student to complain or object to a restraint or the successful use of a restraint with another student shall not justify the use of a particular restraint.
Physical restraint shall not be used if there is a medical contraindication to its use identified for the student, and shall only be applied and supervised by a staff member who has been trained in the safe application and supervision of the specific means of restraint applied.
. The degree of restraint employed must be in proportion to the circumstances of the incident, the size and condition of the student, and the potential risks for injury to the student.
In determining whether a student who is being physically restrained should be moved from the area where the need was first noted or the restraint first applied, the supervising staff member shall consider the potential for injury to the student, the educational and emotional well-being of the restrained student and other students who would observe the application of the restraint, and any requirements detailed in the restrained student’s BIP and/or IEP.
If physical restraint is used in compliance with this Plan on a student whose primary mode of communication is sign language, the student shall be permitted to have his/her hands free of restraint for brief periods unless the supervising staff member determines that such freedom is likely to result in harm to the student or others.
A physical restraint shall be used no longer than necessary to contain the behavior of the student who is in crisis until such time that the student is no longer an immediate threat of causing physical injury to him/herself or others. The use of force in the application of the restraint shall not exceed the force that is reasonably necessary in the circumstances justifying the use of the restraint.
A student shall be released from physical restraint immediately upon a determination by the supervising staff member administering or overseeing the use of restraint that the student is no longer at imminent risk of injury.
- Use of Seclusion
The use of seclusion with a student shall not be permitted except when the conditions described in this Plan as well as the Board Policy on Use of Restraint and Seclusion and the Procedures for Seclusion and Restraint in FTCSC exist. The use of seclusion on a student with a disability shall also be subjected to any conditions described in the students’ IEP and, if applicable, BIP. Seclusion shall never be used as punishment or discipline (e.g., placing in seclusion for out-of-seat behavior), as a means of coercion or retaliation, or as a convenience). Seclusion shall never be used when the student’s known medical or physical condition would make the use of seclusion dangerous for that student.
Seclusion shall be used only as a last resort safety procedure after a less restrictive procedure has been implemented without success and only in a situation in which there is an imminent risk of injury to the student, other students, school employees, visitors at the school or others. Seclusion may be used only for a short time period or until the imminent risk of injury has passed. There should be sufficient knowledge of the student to understand that the substantial risk could be lessened if s/he was removed to a safe environment away from other students. Time Out Procedures that do not create seclusion are permitted in schools within the FTCSC. If Time Out is used it must be both developmentally and behaviorally appropriate and be relatively short in duration. Seclusion may be used only as a last resort safety procedure after a less restrictive procedure has been implemented without success. Seclusion may be used only when the student can be transported safely to the seclusion environment by trained staff members using appropriate techniques based on crisis prevention training.
An enclosure used for seclusion of a student shall have the same ceiling height, lighting, ventilation, and temperature as the surrounding room or rooms. The room or enclosure shall be large enough to accommodate the student being isolated and any other person necessary to accompany the isolated student and provide sufficient space for the student to be able to sit or lay down. The room or enclosure shall not be locked or use any device that requires a key or other device or special knowledge such as a combination lock to exit from the enclosure or room. The enclosure or room shall comply with all applicable health, fire, and emergency safety requirements, and the student placed in seclusion shall be included in any evacuation or safety plan or drill for the school. The enclosure or room shall not be named, labeled, or referred to by any staff member in a manner so as to label or stigmatize a student placed in the enclosure or room.
An enclosure or room used for seclusion must be constructed of materials or objects that cannot injure or be used by a student to injure themselves or others. The enclosure or room shall be free of any potential or predictable safety hazards such as electrical outlets, equipment, and breakable glass. It must be designed so that a student cannot climb up the walls and shall allow for continuous visual monitoring and communication with the student by a staff member. The staff member visually monitoring a student placed in seclusion must be crisis prevention (CP) trained and must be fully informed of this Plan as well as the Board Policy on Use of Restraint and Seclusion and the Procedures for Seclusion and Restraint in FTCSC. The staff member’s duties shall be assigned so that the staff member can carefully and continuously supervise the isolated student, have ongoing communication with the student, and see and hear the student at all times in order that they monitor the student for visual or auditory signs of physiological distress. An enclosure or room shall still be considered to be used for seclusion if more than one student is placed in the room or enclosure under circumstances that would otherwise qualify as seclusion. If more than one student is placed in the room or enclosure, the staff member shall insure that the students do not have the potential to injure one another.
During any seclusion the student must be permitted to use the restroom upon request. Under this circumstance, the student shall be escorted to and from the restroom. During any seclusion the student must be provided with water upon request.
A student shall be isolated for as minimum of a time as possible and must be permitted to re-join their class after the student is no longer at imminent risk of injury to himself/herself or others. If a student with a disability is placed in seclusion pursuant to a BIP or IEP, the time limitations identified in the BIP or IEP shall be followed and applied by the staff member.
- Use of Mechanical Restraint
The use of mechanical restraint is prohibited by this Plan. Schools within the FTCSC shall never use mechanical restraints to restrict a child’s freedom of movement.
- Use of Chemical Restraint
The use of chemical restraint is prohibited by th this Plan. Employees of the FTCSC shall never give a student any drug or medication that is not a standard treatment and dosage for the student’s medical or psychiatric condition unless otherwise prescribed and authorized by his/her licensed physician.
- Employee Responsibilities
Each building principal is responsible for ensuring the formation and annual training of a Crisis Management Team. Each building principal is responsible for ensuring the prompt and accurate reporting of any instance of Seclusion, Restraint, or Time Out. Each member of the CMT must be provided a copy of this Plan as well as the Board Policy on Use of Restraint and Seclusion and the Procedures for Seclusion and Restraint in FTCSC.
Each building principal is responsible for ensuring the timely reporting of each instance of Seclusion, Restraint, or Time Out in Infinite Campus[2]. The Behavior Consultant must be copied/notified of each report of a Behavior Incident whenever there is an instance of Seclusion, Restraint, or Time Out. The Chief Special Education Officer must be contacted whenever there is an instance of Seclusion or Restraint. This is a state-mandated reporting process and the Chief Special Education Officer must be notified no later than three (3) instructional days after the incident which led to the reporting of the incident in Infinite Campus.
Training
All appropriate staff, volunteers, contractors, and others who have regular direct contact with students on will be provided with training, as appropriate for their individual roles, on:
1) Effective alternatives to restraint and seclusion including: conflict de-escalation techniques, and positive supports and behavioral interventions techniques;
2) Steps to avoid the use of seclusion or restraint;
3) The safe use of seclusion and restraint only in accordance with this plan;
4) Debriefing practices and procedures.
Documentation of training shall be kept that includes: the name and position of those trained, who provided the training, when the training was completed, and a short description of the training
Each building principal must ensure all members of the CMT are current in their crisis prevention (CP) training. The Chief Special Education Officer will provide for at least one (1) initial CP training each school year. The Chief Special Education Officer will provide for at least four (4) recertification CP trainings each school year. The Chief Special Education Officer will provide for at least four (4) trainings per school year on conflict de-escalation procedures, positive behavioral interventions and supports, the dangers of seclusion and restraint, and strategies to employ when a behavioral crisis occurs.
Annual Review and Reporting
The Superintendent will designate a coordinator of data, planning and oversight of the use of restraint or seclusion procedures in the school corporation. At least annually, the designated administrator will review the data on the use of restraint and seclusion in the district in order to minimize the use of restraint or seclusion, and will review and consider revising this Plan. The number of instances in which either seclusion or restraint is used, including instances involving a school resource officer, will be reported in the school corporation’s annual performance report required by IC 20-20-8-3. The location of this restraint and seclusion plan will be included in the student handbook for each school.
[1] Detailed instructions for completing the Infinite Campus report are found at T:\Special Education Staff\Administrative Guidelines and Procedures\Seclusion and Restraint\Infinite Campus Behavior Incident Reporting 2017.
[2] Detailed instructions for completing the Infinite Campus report are found at T:\Special Education Staff\Administrative Guidelines and Procedures\Seclusion and Restraint\Infinite Campus Behavior Incident Reporting 2017.