Education Law

House Passes Restraint Bill H.R. 4247

By Charles Fox

The following is a press release from TASH regarding the passage today of the Restraint Bill H.R. 4247 which now goes to the Senate where hopefully it will be taken up in a timely way. 

TASH, the leader in advancing inclusion and human rights for people with significant disabilities, applauds of the passage of H.R. 4247 in the House of Representatives March 3, 2010, but urges additional action in the Senate on the Keeping All Students Safe Act, S. 2860.

The bill ? formerly the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act ? would assist in the prevention of practices that cause physical and emotional harm to students with and without disabilities, if enacted. These practices, including prone restraint, aversive interventions and seclusion, have resulted in the serious injury, emotional trauma and death of hundreds of children nationwide. There is no defensible rationale of their continued use, and there is currently no uniform monitoring on a national level of these techniques.

 ?The passage of H.R. 4247 in the House is major step forward in protecting the human rights, dignity and safety of not only children with disabilities, but all children,? said Barbara Trader, executive director of TASH. ?The responsibility of ensuring these protections now rests with the Senate, and we urge all members to act responsibly and promptly on this critical matter.?

  As the founder of the Alliance to Prevent Restraint, Aversive Interventions and Seclusion, a 17-member organization, TASH encourages supporters of the disability community to continue contacting their Senators to push for a vote on S. 2860. The full passage of the Keeping All Students Safe Act will fill the gap in protections for all children, a need recently addressed in part by the Government Accountability Office in its report to Congress: Seclusion and Restraints; Selected Cases of Death and Abuse at Public and Private Schools and Treatment Centers, available at www.gao.gov.

 Additional information on abusive practices and other resources, including the APRAIS Call to Action, can be found on the TASH Web site at www.tash.org.

Full post as published by Special Education Law Blog on March 03, 2010 (boomark / email).