Nampa School District reports over 1,000 incidents of restraint, seclusion last year
The Nampa School District reported more than 1,000 incidents of restraint and seclusion last school year.
The district’s data showed 58 students were restrained a total of 533 times, and 90 students were secluded a total of 821 times throughout the year. Compared with the previous school year, the district reported more incidents of restraint and seclusion.
The district defines physical restraint as a restriction on a student’s ability to “freely move” their torso, arms, legs or head. Seclusion is when a student is involuntarily put in a room or area alone and unable to leave.
In July 2019, the Nampa school board adopted its policy that required the district to review reports of restraint and seclusion every year and determine whether staff members were following the policy or needed more training. Under that policy, the district must also provide a “monitoring report” to the school board.
In the years since the policy was implemented, the district experienced school closures and pivots to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021-2022 school year had the fewest interruptions and was the “most regular year” the district has had since the policy was approved, said Cyndi Cook, the district’s special education director.
“I don’t want to say this is our baseline, but this is the closest to baseline that we know at this point in time,” she told the school board last week.
Restraint and seclusion, according to guidance from the U.S. Department of Education issued in 2012, should be used only as a last resort, when “a child’s behavior poses imminent danger of serious physical harm to self or others.” The practices should be “avoided to the greatest extent possible without endangering the safety of students and staff,” the guidance said.
But in Idaho, there is little accountability over when and how the practices are used in schools. Idaho has no statewide legislation governing the use of restraint and seclusion or requiring that districts have policies or procedures in place on the use of these aversive techniques.
Many districts, like Nampa, have approved policies on the use of restraint and seclusion, but those policies vary in details and guidance.
Nampa’s policy requires reporting data annually
About 80% of the incidents of restraint and seclusion in Nampa last year took place among students in special education. Most took place at Gateways Elementary and Secondary school. Cook said that location serves students who “have not responded safely to the supports provided for them in their neighborhood school.”
“They exhibit a level of unsafe behaviors that require a smaller staff to student ratio, with a higher intensity level of social/emotional/behavioral supports while they learn new self-regulation skills,” she said in an email to the Idaho Statesman.
After a student is restrained or secluded in Nampa, staff members “process” what happened with students, and a team monitors staff and students “to ensure the least amount of negative impact,” Cook told the Statesman.
Staff members discuss what caused the need to restrain or seclude a child, and whether there were anypreventative measures that could have been used. The district reviews the data and teams meet to determine if they need to change a student’s behavioral intervention plans, or if that student needs positive behavior supports, Cook said.
The district also provides annual training on non-verbal and verbal deescalation.
Cook said the district does not use restraint and seclusion in incidents when a student is not complying with a request, or when a student is not posing imminent harm to students or teachers.
Idaho restraint, seclusion data inconsistent
Although school districts are required to report incidents of restraint and seclusion at the federal level, state and federal officials have acknowledged that data is likely underreported and inaccurate, which makes it difficult to compare the rates of restraint and seclusion across the state.
Nampa, like many districts in Idaho, reported no incidents of restraint and seclusion to the federal Office for Civil Rights over the course of several years, according to latest data available, which was from before the district had its policy in place.
The Department of Education said in its restraint and seclusion resource document that there is no evidence restraint and seclusion reduce problem behaviors. The techniques have, however, caused children trauma, injury, or in rare cases, death.
Special education directors and experts have said the techniques are necessary in rare instances to keep students and staff safe. Cook gave an example of a school fight that happened at the beginning of the year in Nampa. Staff members restrained those kids to keep them apart, she said.
But a Statesman investigation revealed instances in which restraint and seclusion on children led to injuries, fear and long-lasting trauma. Parents across the state have called for legislation and more accountability at a state level.
This story was originally published October 22, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
