For the first time, the legislation would remove and replace the phrase “mental retardation” with “intellectual disability” from federal education, health and labor laws.

“Pejorative and offensive phrases to persons with disabilities don’t belong in conversations and they certainly don’t belong in legislative language. This bill takes the right step forward toward equality and justice for all Americans”, said Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller. “Persons with disabilities have always fought an uphill battle to reduce the stigmas they face in daily life. I’m proud to support this legislation and I applaud my colleagues for passing this important legislation. I look forward to the President signing this bill into law very soon and I hope other committees will take action to make similar changes in their laws.”

The Senate passed the bill in August. The President is expected to sign the legislation in the coming days.

For more information about the bill, click here.

“Currently, educators across the United States are striving to ensure that all public school students are college and career ready to enable their success in this global economy,” Miller wrote. “However, students with disabilities often face academic, physical, social, and economic challenges when transitioning from high school to postsecondary education or the workforce. As a result, they are less likely than other students to make this transition successfully. 

“The federal government plays a significant role in supporting students with disabilities through a variety of programs. I remain concerned about whether federal efforts adequately provide a comprehensive, coordinated approach to transition services for youth with disabilities,” Miller said in the letter.

Below is the full text of the letter to GAO.

 
***
The Honorable Gene Dodaro
Acting Comptroller General
U.S. Government Accountability Office
441 G Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20548

Dear Mr. Dodaro:
I write to ask that the Government Accountability Office  (GAO) to examine how students with disabilities transition from high school to postsecondary education or the workforce and how existing federal programs support that transition.
The demand for skilled workers has increased in today’s rapidly changing global economy. Currently, educators across the United States are striving to ensure that all public school students are college and career ready to enable their success in this global economy. However, students with disabilities often face academic, physical, social, and economic challenges when transitioning from high school to postsecondary education or the workforce. As a result, they are less likely than other students to make this transition successfully.
The federal government plays a significant role in supporting students with disabilities through a variety of programs. In the past, GAO has reported that a lack of coordination among programs assisting youth with disabilities, as well as differences in program structure and requirements, have affected the provision of services to this population. I remain concerned about whether federal efforts adequately provide a comprehensive, coordinated approach to transition services for youth with disabilities.
Specifically, I request that that GAO undertake the following review:   
• Identify the key federal programs that help support students with disabilities in their transition to postsecondary education or the workforce;

• Examine the challenges students with disabilities face in accessing existing federal programs designed to assist them in transitioning to postsecondary education or the workforce;

• Examine the degree to which federal agencies coordinate their efforts in this area and identify any barriers preventing the optimal level of coordination; and

• Examine how federal agencies use performance and program data to assess the effectiveness of coordination efforts in improving service provision to students with disabilities. 

I appreciate your prompt attention this request and GAO’s assistance to the Committee on these issues. Please direct your staff to coordinate GAO’s work with the Laura Schifter, the Committee’s Disability and Education Policy Advisor. She may be reached at 202-226-2068.

Sincerely,

George Miller
Chairman

“Independent living centers play a critical role for people with disabilities, providing key services like peer counseling and advocacy  and promoting access and participation. This law goes a long way toward ensuring independent living centers do not have to reduce services for people with disabilities. In many areas, independent living centers are the primary provider of services in a community for people with disabilities. Staff at these centers work to empower people with disabilities with choices and the opportunities to help themselves live more independent lives.

“In my home state of California, independent living centers create equal opportunities and run programs for thousands of people with disabilities. As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we’re reminded of the plight and the continued fight for all Americans to achieve equal access. By signing this important bill in to law, President Obama has once again shown his commitment to helping all Americans reach their full potential.”

“We wrote the ADA to ensure America works for all Americans. The law broke down barriers, prohibited discrimination, promoted access and provided basic civil rights to people with disabilities. Over the past 20 years, people with disabilities have been able to access educational opportunities and employment.  They’ve been able to use buildings, transportation, and communities that once presented huge obstacles. We have all seen how successful the law has been in providing people with disabilities full participation in society.

“While these improvements occurred, we also saw several court decisions erode the intent of the bill. Fortunately two years ago, with Majority Leader Hoyer and Speaker Pelosi’s leadership, we were able to work together again, in a bipartisan manner, to pass the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. These amendments restored the original intent of the ADA to ensure that the tens of millions of Americans with disabilities who want to work, attend school, and fully participate in our communities will have the chance to do so.

“It’s time for us to look to the future, to honor the successes of the past and build upon them to continue to increase the options of people with disabilities. We still have a long way to go to improve educational outcomes for all students, especially students with disabilities and to improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities. I am committed to continuing this work, and I look forward to working with advocates, stakeholders, my colleagues in Congress and the Obama administration to ensure all people can reach their full potential.”

“All students, including students with disabilities, should be able to reap the benefits of physical activity and team sports in school and in life,” said Miller. “It is clear from this report that we need to work harder to remove the obstacles students with disabilities face in physical education and athletics.”

“While many schools have made great strides educating students with disabilities in mainstream academic classrooms, sports programs and physical education classes are the final frontier for full inclusion in schools,” said McCarthy. “The benefit of increased physical activity of all people, including those with disabilities, is well established, but understanding the barriers to participation specific to students with disabilities is critical to crafting appropriate responses. The GAO report is a step toward understanding and addressing these barriers. I look forward to working with Chairman Miller, the Department of Education, and interested students, parents, and groups to respond to the concerns raised and recommendations provided in the GAO report.”

“I thank the GAO for conducting this study. As we see from their conclusions, while many schools make good faith efforts to include students with disabilities, we can do more to provide guidance on best practices and the requirements of the federal law. I look forward to working with the Department of Education to disseminate this information on the local level,” said Van Hollen.
 
“The health and social benefits of physical activity and athletic participation are well established.  These benefits may be even more important for students with disabilities, who are at a greater risk for being sedentary and developing secondary conditions.  Students with disabilities should have an equal opportunity to participate in PE and in extracurricular athletics or adaptive sports if they so desire, and we need to do all we can to encourage such participation.” said Harkin.

GAO visited five states, California, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey, and conducted phone interviews with officials from Georgia and Texas, to determine students with disabilities’ participation in physical education and athletics.  They found students with disabilities “generally attend PE class about the same amount of time as students without disabilities” but that a challenge to note was the lack of “sufficient training or experience for PE or classroom teachers.”

In all the states GAO spoke with, school officials said every student, including those with disabilities, are permitted to try out for interscholastic athletic teams. In some instances, schools provide accommodations depending on the students’ disabilities.

In New Jersey, for example, a high school provided an interpreter for a deaf student playing baseball. In California, a school adapted rules for students on the wrestling team who were deaf and blind.

While some schools took steps to provide extracurricular athletic opportunities to students with disabilities, on the whole, GAO reported that school districts cited budget constraints and a general lack of clarity regarding their schools’ responsibility to students with disabilities as barriers to participation.

In response to the report, lawmakers wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asking him to heed the recommendations in the GAO report to “clarify and communicate schools’ responsibilities”  in providing opportunities for students with disabilities to participate in extracurricular sports.  They also asked the Department of Education to issue guidance on the best ways to better provide extracurricular athletic opportunities to students with disabilities

View the full report

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report released last spring exposed hundreds of cases of schoolchildren being abused as a result of inappropriate uses of restraint and seclusion, often involving untrained staff. In some cases, children died. A disproportionate number of these victims were students with disabilities.

“Something is very wrong when our children are at risk in their own classrooms,” said Miller, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee who requested the GAO’s investigation. “In some cases, the abuses these kids are suffering are nothing short of torture inflicted at the hands of the very staff we entrust with their safety. Today is a critical first step toward finally ending this nightmare of abuse and ensuring that all classrooms are safe for students, their teachers, and the entire school communities.”

“As a parent, when I send my son Cole to school, my husband Brian and I send him with the expectation that he is safe from danger. We entrust him to teachers, principals, and aides. And we know those school personnel have done an outstanding job to help him and keep him safe. Yet, we know this has not been the case for other children, particularly children with disabilities who are the most vulnerable and need the most protection,” said McMorris Rodgers, a member of the House Education and Labor Committee and vice chair of the House Republican Conference. “I’ve looked into this and have come to the conclusion that there is a lack of training. As difficult situations arise, teachers or principals just don’t know what to do. The legislation that we are introducing today gives states the needed guidance and resources to enable teachers and school personnel to handle difficult situations in the most positive manner possible.”

“The tragedies associated with the inappropriate use of seclusion and restraint are not only unacceptable, they are unconscionable,” said Dodd.  “There is no place in our schools for what amounts to torture, and we need clear standards for the use of tactics that lead to the physical and psychological abuse of children.  This legislation will set clear guidelines so that children and educators alike can be sure of a safe learning environment.”

Created with flickrSLiDR.

Restraint is used to restrict an individual’s freedom of movement. Seclusion is used to involuntarily confine a student in an area alone. Both practices are meant to be used only in situations of imminent danger. Among other things, the GAO found that restraint can become fatal when it restricts breathing, that many of the school staff who used these interventions in abusive ways had not been properly trained, and that these practices are often being used as a routine disciplinary tactic, rather than in response to an emergency.

In some of the cases GAO investigated, ropes, duct tape, chairs with straps and bungee cords were used to restrain or isolate young children.

Unlike in hospitals and other medical and community-based facilities that receive federal health funding, there are currently no federal laws addressing restraint and seclusion in schools. While the Children’s Health Act of 2000 regulates how and when restraint and seclusion can be used on children in these other settings, schools are not covered. State regulation and oversight varies greatly; many states provide no guidance or assistance regarding these behavioral interventions.

The Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act (H.R. 4247) would establish the first federal standards to protect students from misuse of restraint and seclusion and ensure the safety of everyone in the classroom. It would apply to public schools, private schools and preschools receiving federal education support. Specifically the legislation would:

 

• Establish important minimum federal safety standards in schools, similar to the protections already in place in hospitals and other non-medical community based facilities
• Limit physical restraint and locked seclusion, allowing these interventions only when there is imminent danger of injury, and only when imposed by trained staff;
• Outlaw mechanical restraints, such as strapping kids to chairs, and prohibit restraints that restrict breathing;
• Require schools to notify parents after incidents when restraint or seclusion was used;
• Call on states, within two years of enactment, to establish their own policies, procedures, monitoring and enforcement systems to meet these minimum standards;
• Encourage states to provide support and training to better protect students and prevent the need for emergency behavioral interventions; and
• Increase transparency, oversight and enforcement tools to prevent future abuse.

The Education and Labor Committee plans to mark up the bill early next year.

Miller first requested the GAO investigation in January 2009, after the National Disability Rights Network released a report highlighting these abuses. The GAO unveiled its findings at an Education and Labor Committee hearing in May.

To view a fact sheet on the legislation, click here.

For more information on May’s hearing, click here.

###

A GAO investigation released yesterday at a committee hearing, and conducted at the request of U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the committee’s chairman, uncovered hundreds of allegations of abusive uses of seclusion and restraint practices on schoolchildren over the past two decades. In at least twenty of those cases, this abuse resulted in the death of a child.

Currently, there are no federal laws that govern the use of seclusion and restraint in schools. State regulation and oversight varies greatly; nineteen states have no such laws.

Specifically, Secretary Duncan announced that he is asking all state school chiefs to submit their plans for using seclusion, restraint and other practices for physical intervention in their schools. His announcement came at the beginning of a hearing to discuss the Obama administration’s plans for transforming education in America.

“Children’s safety has to be our number one concern before we begin to think about educating them and doing other things,” said Duncan. “And as we go into the summer and prepare for next school year I want to make sure that as we go into next school year that every state has a real clear plan as to how to do this in a way that makes sense. And doesn’t jeopardize, doesn’t endanger children.”

To watch the full video of his announcement, click here.

Miller praised the Secretary for taking quick action on a first step toward improving federal oversight. The committee will continue working with GAO and the Obama administration on a comprehensive plan to keep school communities safe.

The Obama administration has indicated it plans to meet with stakeholders about these abuses in the coming weeks.



Created with flickrSLiDR.


For more information on yesterday’s hearing, click here.

“GAO’s report shows that in too many cases, a child’s life wound up being threatened even though that child was not a threat to others,” said Miller. “This behavior, in some instances, looks like torture. The current situation is unacceptable and cannot continue.”

Seclusion, as the term is used in this context, means the act of involuntarily confining a student in an area by himself. Restraint is used to restrict an individual’s freedom of movement. As GAO explained today, restraint can become fatal when it blocks air to the lungs. In some of the cases examined, ropes, duct tape, chairs with straps and bungee cords were used to retrain or isolate young children.

Unlike in hospitals, other health care facilities and most non-medical community-based facilities that receive federal funding, there are currently no federal laws that restrict the use of seclusion and restraint in public or private schools. State regulation and oversight varies greatly. Nineteen states have no laws governing the appropriate use of seclusion and restraint in schools.

“Cedric struggled as he was being held in his chair, so the teacher put him in a face down, or in a prone restraint, and sat on him,” said Toni Price, whose son Cedric was killed after a teacher restrained him and laid on top of him for trying to leave his classroom. “He struggled and said repeatedly: ‘I can’t breathe.’  Shortly after that, he stopped speaking and he stopped struggling.”

In half of the cases GAO studied, the teachers or school staff involved with the abuse continued to teach, either in the same school system or a new one.

Although Cedric’s death was ruled a homicide, the teacher involved continues to teach students with disabilities, only now in Virginia, a different state than where Cedric was killed. GAO said today that they have referred the case to the Virginia Department of Education. Today the American Association of School Administrators announced that the school district is investigating the case and the teacher has been placed on leave.

GAO also found that, more often than not, teachers and staff who used seclusion and restraint in abusive ways had not been properly trained. These practices were often being used as a routine disciplinary tactic, rather than in response to an emergency.

Ann Gaydos was never told that teachers were using restraint tactics on her daughter, Paige, until she came home with bruises:

“Within a week at her new school, she came home bruised and told me, ‘Mommy, my teacher hurt me and I couldn’t breathe.’ We were shocked that we had not been informed by the school of this use of force that had injured our daughter, and that such force could so easily be used for something as small as playing with a loose tooth in time out.”

A school aide who came forward to warn Paige’s parents that this abuse was happening to other students was ostracized by fellow staff.




Created with flickrSLiDR.

It is impossible to determine the full extent to which seclusion and restraint practices are used in schools because there is no centralized reporting system. The few states that do collect data suggest these methods are used frequently. During the last school year alone, Texas and California documented over 33,000 incidents in which seclusion and restraint were used on students in public and private schools.

“Since these reports are often the result of parent complaints or media reports, we do not know how many times these procedures are inappropriately employed with students,” said Dr. Reece L. Peterson, a Professor of Special Education at the University of Nebraska. “Yet there does appear to be a substantial number of these situations, and they appear to be scattered across the United States.”  

Yesterday, the Obama administration indicated it plans to meet with stakeholders to address these abuses.

Miller said that today’s hearing makes clear that legislation is needed to keep students safe.

“We plan to look at this closely, with the Obama administration, to determine whether federal guidance is warranted. In light of this report, we encourage leaders of all of our nation’s schools who are working hard every day to educate our kids to immediately review their policies regarding restraint and seclusion.”

Miller requested the GAO investigation in January 2009, after the National Disability Rights Network released a report highlighting these abuses.