Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series on discipline in Maine schools.
The Maine Department of Education has finally set a date in November to convene a panel to review the state’s rules on the controversial practices of restraining or secluding schoolchildren.
The panel has been in the works since May 2009, when a bill to prohibit face-down restraints failed to win support in the Legislature’s education committee. The committee asked the department to review its regulations and investigate disparities in how physical restraint policies are implemented across the state. A report is expected early next year.
“This is fantastic,” said Diane Smith, a lawyer with the Disability Rights Center of Maine who’s on the panel. “It says to me that they’re finally taking this matter seriously after months without action.”
Smith said the panel of educators, children’s advocates and others will have to work hard to recommend rule changes within a few months.
“I hope the department dedicates the appropriate time and resources to the serious and complex issues under discussion,” she said.
The panel will hold its first meeting at 8 a.m. on Nov. 9 in Room 103 A and B of the Cross Office Building, 111 Sewell St., Augusta, according to a notice e-mailed to panel members Friday. Panelists who cannot attend may submit written statements before Nov. 1.
The department is seeking suggestions, concerns, questions and descriptions of recurring problems that may warrant revision of Chapter 33 of its rules, according to the notice. Panelists are asked to include evidence, anecdotal or objective, supporting their information.
It’s unclear how many restraints occur in Maine or the United States each year, or how many of them have resulted in injury or death, because federal and state education departments don’t keep track.
Congress is considering a bill, known as the “Keeping All Students Safe Act,” that would establish the first minimum federal standards for how teachers can restrain or seclude students.
In Maine, Smith and others say, the rules governing the use of physical restraint and seclusion, such as time-out rooms, are unclear, lack necessary oversight and are potentially harmful to schoolchildren.
Smith said she believes recent attention brought to these problems by The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram encouraged state education officials to start their review.
“Nothing was happening before that,” Smith said.
Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at: kbouchard@pressherald.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
