OCR found that one of these students died after being subjected to a prolonged restraint that was preceded by at least four other restraints by the nonpublic school of which the district was aware.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced last week that the Davis Joint Unified School District in California has entered into a resolution agreement to ensure that its restraint and seclusion policies and practices do not deny students with disabilities a free appropriate public education (FAPE).
OCR examined whether the district’s use of restraint and seclusion in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years denied its students with disabilities a FAPE in violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504), Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Title II), and their implementing regulations.
OCR determined that the district placed three of its students with disabilities in nonpublic school settings and violated their rights under Section 504 and Title II because the district:
- Failed to ensure that district staff making placement decisions for these students had access to and carefully considered information obtained about the use of physical restraint and/or seclusion with these students.
- Separately failed to ensure that those making decisions regarding behavioral interventions for these students were knowledgeable about each student, the meaning of the evaluation data, and the placement.
- Failed to reevaluate these students to determine whether the repeated use of restraint and seclusion for these students denied them a FAPE and if additional aids and services were appropriate to provide a FAPE. And,
- Denied a FAPE to all three students based on the above failures and resulting harms to the students.
“I am grateful for Davis Joint Unified School District’s commitment to take important steps to ensure that its students with disabilities are not denied a free and appropriate public education as a result of the use of restraint or seclusion whether they are placed in district schools or nonpublic school settings,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon. “The tragic death of a child subjected to prolonged and repeated restraint at a school placement through this district underscores the urgency for school communities everywhere to carefully examine their restraint and seclusion practices to safeguard children in their care, in addition to their obligation to satisfy the federal civil rights laws we enforce.”
Throughout the investigation, OCR found that one of these students died after being subjected to a prolonged restraint that was preceded by at least four other restraints by the nonpublic school of which the district was aware. It was further found that the other two students were subjected to repeated restraints and seclusions, costing each student multiple total days less classroom instruction than their peers who were not subject to such restraints and seclusions. OCR found that that district did not visit the nonpublic schools following notification of their repeated use of restraints and seclusions.
Compliance concerns that the district did not document all restraints and seclusions and may have failed to identify all students subjected to restraint and seclusion were also identified by OCR. These documentation concerns, coupled with district staff not having access to complete information about restraint and seclusions, raised a related concern that parents did not consistently have access to the information needed to participate meaningfully on the IEP teams for their children.
OCR did not find evidence that district schools used seclusion during the years reviewed, and, during these same years, OCR identified six district students whom district elementary school staff restrained in a total of 12 incidents….