The House began debate on H.R. 4247, the Keeping All Students Safe Act, at 12:30 ET today. The House may vote on the bill as early as 3:30 or 4 pm.
The legislation will – for the first time – protect children from abusive uses of restraint and seclusion in U.S. schools. This legislation is a direct response to recent U.S. Government Accountability Office investigation that found that at least hundreds of kids were being abused in school by misuses of restraint or seclusion. The victims were children as young as three and four, with disabilities and without disabilities, in public and private schools. In some cases, children died.
GAO found that teachers are too often using these practices as frequent discipline. They’re using it when children fidget in their chairs, are unwilling to follow directions or leave a room.
In some cases, these abuses are nothing short of torture: teachers tying children to chairs, taping their mouths shut, using handcuffs, denying them food, fracturing bones, locking them in small dark spaces, and sitting on them until they turn blue.
GAO also found that there are no federal laws on the books to keep this from happening in schools, where kids spend most of their time. Hospitals and other facilities that receive federal taxpayer dollars do have laws in place to protect kids from these practices. Without a federal standard, state laws are all over the map. Nineteen states have no laws whatsoever – meaning kids have no protections.
The bill has bipartisan support – it was introduced by U.S. Reps. George Miller (D-CA), and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who both serve on the House Education and Labor Committee and are members of their respective party leaderships.
Learn more about the GAO’s shocking investigation into the use of seclusion and restraint in schools around the country.
Read more about H.R. 4247, the Keeping All Students Safe Act.
The legislation will – for the first time – protect children from abusive uses of restraint and seclusion in U.S. schools. This legislation is a direct response to recent U.S. Government Accountability Office investigation that found that at least hundreds of kids were being abused in school by misuses of restraint or seclusion. The victims were children as young as three and four, with disabilities and without disabilities, in public and private schools. In some cases, children died.
GAO found that teachers are too often using these practices as frequent discipline. They’re using it when children fidget in their chairs, are unwilling to follow directions or leave a room.
In some cases, these abuses are nothing short of torture: teachers tying children to chairs, taping their mouths shut, using handcuffs, denying them food, fracturing bones, locking them in small dark spaces, and sitting on them until they turn blue.
GAO also found that there are no federal laws on the books to keep this from happening in schools, where kids spend most of their time. Hospitals and other facilities that receive federal taxpayer dollars do have laws in place to protect kids from these practices. Without a federal standard, state laws are all over the map. Nineteen states have no laws whatsoever – meaning kids have no protections.
The bill has bipartisan support – it was introduced by U.S. Reps. George Miller (D-CA), and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who both serve on the House Education and Labor Committee and are members of their respective party leaderships.
Learn more about the GAO’s shocking investigation into the use of seclusion and restraint in schools around the country.
Read more about H.R. 4247, the Keeping All Students Safe Act.
