BY THE WAY, DID YOUR CHILD SPEND HIS OR HER SCHOOL DAY IN CLASS OR IN A SECLUSION ROOM?

Does Your School Have A Secret Seclusion Room That They Forgot To Tell You About?

Last year the Huffington Post reported that families across the country are challenging a system they say has not only failed to educate and protect their children, but also endangered their lives. According to the Huffington Post, dozens of lawsuits have been filed against schools and districts as parents speak out against physical disciplinary methods that have injured or killed their children, ABC News reports. The families claim that an extensive abuse of harsh methods to restrain misbehaving students -- many with special needs -- has become a chronic problem in U.S. schools.  ABC's family interviews reflect the findings of a federal report released in March.  The Huffington Post further reports that Education Department officials found that schools physically restrained students 39,000 times during the 2009-2010 school year, and about 70 percent of cases involved students with special needs.  Schools also are reducing nonviolent intervention training, according to a survey by the American Association of School Administrators, as states lose grants and face budget cuts.  There are currently no federal standards for the use of seclusion and restraint in schools, and only 17 states have explicit laws that limit the use of such punitive measures.  Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/school-seclusion-restraint_n_2219091.html  On November 20, 2013, NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters, Sabrina Kuriakose, in her report, “Seclusion Rooms Used 23,000 Times in Connecticut Schools,” reported that numbers from the State Department of Education show it's happening much more than experts and advocates thought. James McGaughey is the head of the Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities. "That's just a huge number. So it ought to be high on everybody's agenda to deal with it,” said McGaughey.  Records show in the 2011-2012 school year, Connecticut children were put in isolation rooms more than 23,000 times.  “It's happening in almost every school district,” said Dr. Melissa Olive, an autism expert and founder of Applied Behavioral Strategies.  That number includes both emergency seclusions and seclusions in which staff is following an individualized educational program signed off on by parents for their kids with special needs, known as an IEP. But state investigations reveal that at Farm Hill School in Middletown, where a scream room controversy erupted last year, parents of only four of the fifteen children put in scream rooms agreed to the technique, and investigators said “Children who were secluded were both special education and regular education students."  Skeptics argue there is no evidence seclusion is effective, and they worry the rooms may do more harm than good.  "Not a good strategy. Not only does it have human rights implications, there's always a possibility of somebody being injured in the process of putting them into restraint or seclusion and there's also a psychological trauma that accompanies that,” said McGaughey.  To look up the use of seclusion rooms in schools across the state and to Read Full Story, click on http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/investigations/LWRD-Seclusion-Rooms-Used-23000-Times-in-Connecticut-Schools-232611351.html  See video below: