Parents of children who receive special education services are asking for help by urging constituents to contact their senators and request they co-sponsor the Keeping All Students Safe Act (S.2020), a bill that will protect children nationwide from restraint and seclusion in schools.

 

The need for this legislation came to the forefront when the media exposed the use of "scream rooms" at Farm Hill Elementary school in Middleton, Conn., where special needs children banged their heads against the walls and teachers were seen wiping blood off the walls. The Federal bill, S.2020, would ban confinement of children in locked rooms from which they cannot exit. It also bans life-threatening restraint that interferes with breathing or the ability to communicate. Mechanical and chemical restraints would be banned and the school required to notify parents within 24 hours of any kind of restraint.

 

National, state and local groups are urged to sign on in support of the Act at the Keeping All Students Safe Act site.

 

Individuals can email senators through Senate website forms. Hoosiers should contact Dan Coats and Richard Lugar. Advocates for this bill ask that people use email because postal mail is slowed due to anthrax inspections.

 

For more information on this bill, go to Wright's Law.