Injured While Being Restrained at Washington Schools

(Tacoma News Tribune)  -- New data from Washington school districts show that, from January through June, thousands of students were involved in incidents that resulted in school employees using restraints or isolation to get student behavior under control.

The data, released last week by the state superintendent’s office for the first time under a 2015 law, also revealed that the procedures resulted in more than 300 injuries to students and nearly 1,000 injuries to school staff members. The data do not specify the extent of the injuries or whether they required medical treatment.

Advocates for special needs students who helped get Washington’s 2015 law adopted call the recent state numbers “shockingly high” in a news release. The new data include all students, special needs and general education students.

Arzu Forough, president and CEO of Washington Autism Alliance and Advocacy, said the statewide data illustrate a pressing need for more training for school employees. That training should encourage the use of research-based positive behavior interventions in place of physical force, she said.

“Forceful restraints are dangerous not just to the students, but to the people who are doing it,” she said.  Some school districts said the numbers might be skewed because of confusion over what to report. Not all districts reported data.