A few days ago I finished an article on the use of restraints and seclusion in schools, prompted by a report from the National Disability Rights Network, “School is Not Supposed to Hurt.” (pdf) The Government Accountability Office, a Congressional watchdog agency, is working on its own report about the same topic.
The National Disability Rights Network, formerly known as the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems, represents the protection and advocacy agencies that are in each state. (You can find a link to your state’s P&A agency here.) After a media expose in the 1970s of mistreatment of patients at a New York mental health facility, Congress created the protection and advocacy agencies to represent the rights of people with disabilities across the country.
My article only scratches the surface of this very difficult and controversial issue. But in a quirk of perfect timing, the always-useful Wrightslaw blog has a post indicating that the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates is collecting stories about the use of abusive restraints and seclusion to submit to the GAO for its report.
You can find the survey through this link. And you can read more about the project here.