AURORA| A new law will prevent school staff members from using physical restraints of any kind on children except in the most dire of circumstances. But the changes on the state level will have little effect on how schools in Aurora handle student discipline.
The new law prohibits school staff members from hogtying students, using things like mace to subdue students or using a device to keep them stationary except in instances where there is an immediate threat to that student, other students or staff. It also requires school districts to have an annual review process on when restraints are used. The bill doesn’t apply to police
While the law will require changes to policy for some school districts in the state, for Aurora Public Schools and Cherry Creek School District House Bill 1276 will require both to only make small modifications to the policies on the books now.
State Sen. Rhonda Fields, a co-sponsor of the bill, said the issue was brought to her by advocates of people with disabilities who wanted Colorado to join a majority of states that already ban restraining students in a prone position. Fields said the practices outlawed in the bill had been used against students who were Autistic.
Work on the bill had begun about eight years ago, before Fields joined in the effort, she said.
“We wanted to make sure it was only used in the the most difficult scenarios. You have to be trained to use prone restraint. We don’t want just anyone using this tactic on kids without any formal training,” Fields said. “When you think about prone restraints, you’re putting a child or student on their stomachs with their hands tied behind them. I’m thinking we should have better ways to address issues like that and (schools) should report on them.”
Fields said across the metro area the use of physical restraint on students by staff isn’t a common practice. Both Aurora Public Schools and Cherry Creek School District policies have strict outlines for when students can be restrained by staff and review processes for each incident when students have to be restrained by staff.
Jessica O’Muireadhaigh, director of mental health and counseling for APS, said in the past 10 or so years APS staff haven’t used a prone restraint procedure on students.
“We’re in line with the new regulations. We’re glad they’re in place and we use restraints only as a last resort,” O’Muireadhaigh said. “We have a single review process that was put in place at least five years ago.”
O’Muireadhaigh said APS also recently increased the cycle of training for its staff on the use of restraints. Teachers now take a two-day class once every three years, followed by one-day training in the next two years.
While APS has a way for parents to file complaints when their children have restraints used against them in school, O’Muireadhaigh said, it was not a formalized policy. Due to the new law, APS is in the process of putting their complaint policy into writing.
Cherry Creek’s policy also is essentially inline with the new state law, said Tustin Amole, spokeswoman for Cherry Creek.
“The new law doesn’t really change anything for us. Basically the only new things according to our attorney is that it prohibits certain kinds of restraints,” Amole said. “Those were things we’re extremely conservative about using.”
Amole said a restraint against students are used in certain cases, like if a student had a medical condition that would prevent them from being able to control their limbs. But in those instances, the student’s doctor would have worked with the school on what type of restraint should be used and when.
“If we have some students who become very violent, in that case we usually call police. The police have much wider latitude in how they can restrain them,” Amole said.