Texas Schools are Underreporting When Students are Restrained, Federal Watchdog Finds

Texas Schools are Underreporting When Students are Restrained, Federal Watchdog Finds

Eva-Marie Ayala, Staff Writer

Dallas Morning News

June 27, 2019

This story was updated on June 27, 2019, to reflect the number of restraint incidents Northside ISD reported to Texas officials.

Two-thirds of Texas school districts reported zero incidents of students' being placed in restraints or seclusion in the 2015-16 school year, leaving authorities questioning how valid the required reporting is, according to a federal watchdog office.

Nationwide, 70 percent of districts reported no incidents of having to restrict a student's ability to move freely or having to confine a student alone, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported.

Accurate data is necessary to ensure the "vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws that protect students from discrimination," GAO officials wrote in the report released last week.

The disciplinary tactics tend to disproportionately affect students with disabilities and boys. And families and advocates of students with disabilities say they're more likely to face abuse or neglect in schools because such students sometimes have trouble communicating about any mistreatment.

Schools are required to report the use of restraints or seclusion to both state and federal officials. But advocates for children with disabilities say it's common for educators to either ignore reporting requirements or not understand them.

And schools get away with it because they face no real consequences, said Kym Rogers, an attorney for Disability Rights Texas. Rogers said she doesn't think any district is accurately reporting the use of restraints and seclusion discipline.

"We often hear from parents that they are not told when their child has been restrained or disciplined improperly," Rogers said.

The disparities in what is reported seem obvious: Among the largest Texas school districts, for example, Dallas reported 182 incidents of restraint that school year while Houston reported 66. But the San Antonio-area Northside school district reported zero.

Nine other of the nation's 30 largest districts -- with more than 100,000 students -- also reported zero incidents that school year. All of the largest districts reported no seclusion incidents. New York City and Philadelphia did not collect the data.

Restraints and seclusion are rarely used disciplinary actions -- typically only when a student is a danger to himself or others. But the GAO said its findings raise serious concerns about underreporting and misreporting.

Some districts that said they had trouble reporting the data -- including Northside ISD -- also did not follow up with an action plan as required by the U.S. Department of Education, according to the GAO.

Rogers said teachers are often not aware of how they should be handling restraint and seclusion incidents. She said has spoken to a Dallas high school teacher who didn't know reporting was required, thinking it was enough to document the incident with a detailed discipline report.

"There's a lack of training and accountability," Rogers said.

Dallas schools spokeswoman Robyn Harris said that while she's not aware of what case Rogers referred to, each campus has a core team -- including an administrator, a special education teacher and a general education teacher -- who are trained on how to handle potentially dangerous outbursts.

The training -- which is mandated by the state for public schools -- includes behavior intervention as well as the proper use of restraint or seclusion when necessary. The core team is also trained on how to properly document such instances, Harris added.

Harris said there may be instances where a teacher is unaware of reporting requirements but she added that the core team on each campus should be aware of such instances and know to report them.

She also said Dallas ISD is training more staff across the district on the use of restorative discipline and other social-emotional learning techniques that help de-escalate situations before they get out of hand, Harris said.

Northside ISD spokesman Barry Perez said the district has been recording all physical restraints in the district's system as required, but data was missing in the 2015-16 federal submission because of inadequacies with the software the district used.

"Northside ISD has communicated all of this information to the Office of Civil Rights and is working with our vendor to ensure that data is submitted in the correct format," Perez said in a written statement.

District officials said they reported 1,890 restraints to the Texas Education Agency that school year.

Last month, WOAI-TV in San Antonio reported that a mother was concerned her son was improperly restrained at least twice at a Northside elementary school. The station also reported on another case at the campus in which two NISD teachers restrained a student in a hallway.

Perez noted to The News that the first allegation was investigated by both the school district and Child Protective Services, both of which found no evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of the employee. The second allegation was investigated by NISD police with no evidence of wrongdoing, Perez said.

All staff at the campus were given a review of restraint practices, Perez said.

The 2015-16 school year is the most recent release of the Civil Rights Data Collection. Schools are required to submit various information for the collection every two years. The U.S. Department of Education began requiring data on the use of restraints and seclusions in the 2009-10 school year.

In 2009, families and advocates testified before a congressional committee about how such practices lead to children being abused and, in some cases, dying. A GAO official testified then about a Texas teacher who restrained a child until he died. The educator went on to teach in Virginia.

Two thirds of the state’s districts did not report to federal officials any incidents of using restraint or seclusion on students during the 2015-16 school year. Of the largest Texas districts, none reported incidents of seclusion and only one reported zero restraint incidents.

Houston 215,989 students, 66 incidents of restraint

Dallas 158,941 students, 182 incidents of restraint

Cypress-Fairbanks 113,912 students, 98 incidents of restraint

Northside 104,847 students, 0 incidents of restraint

You can find the original article here.