Board Policy JGF(2): Seclusion or Restraint of Students

Seclusion and Restraint

The DeKalb County Board of Education establishes the following standards for the safe administration of physical restraint with regard to enrolled students.

1. The use of chemical restraint, mechanical restraint, or prone restraint, as defined by Georgia Department of Education Rule 160-5-1-.35, is prohibited within the DeKalb County School System.

2. The use of seclusion, as defined by Georgia Department of Education Rule 160-5-1-.35, is prohibited within the DeKalb County School System.

3. Seclusion does not include situations in which a staff member trained in the use of de-escalation techniques or restraint is physically present in the same unlocked room as the student.

4. Seclusion does not include “time-out,” defined as a behavioral intervention in which the student is temporarily removed from the learning activity but in which the student is not confined.

5. Seclusion does not include in-school suspension, detention, or a student-requested break in a different location in the classroom or in a separate unlocked room.

6. Physical restraint may be utilized only when the student is an immediate danger to himself or others and the student is not responsive to less intensive behavioral interventions including verbal directives or other de-escalation techniques.

7. Physical restraint does not include: providing limited physical contact and/or redirection to promote student safety, providing physical guidance or prompting when teaching a skill, redirecting attention, providing guidance to a location, or providing comfort.

8. Physical restraint shall not be used:

9. as a form of discipline or punishment, or

10. when the student cannot be safely restrained, or

11. when the use of the intervention would be contraindicated due to the student’s psychiatric, medical, or physical conditions as described in the student’s educational records.

12. All physical restraint must be immediately terminated when the student is no longer an immediate danger to himself or others or if the student is observed to be in severe distress.

13. Before any staff member may implement physical restraint, he or she should have completed an approved training program.

14. Approved training programs will address a full continuum of positive behavioral intervention strategies as well as prevention and de-escalation techniques and restraint.

15. Schools and programs shall maintain written or electronic documentation on training provided and the list of participants in each training. Copies of such documentation will be made available to the Georgia Department of Education or any member of the public upon request.

16. If a staff member who has not completed an approved training program has to physically restrain a student to prevent injury to a student or others in an emergency situation when staff members trained in physical restraint are not available, he or she should ask other students, if present, to request assistance immediately.

17. Whenever possible, the use of physical restraint on a student shall be monitored by another staff member or administrator. The use of physical restraint shall be documented by staff or faculty participating in or supervising the restraint for each student in each instance in which the student is restrained.

18. Whenever physical restraint is used on a student, the school or program where the restraint is administered shall notify the student’s parent or legal guardian within one school day after the use of restraint.

19. This policy does not prohibit a staff member from utilizing time-out, as defined in paragraph (2) above, or any other classroom management technique or approach, including a student’s removal from the classroom, that is not specifically addressed in this rule.

20. This policy does not prohibit a staff member from taking appropriate action to diffuse a student fight or altercation.

21. Deciding whether the use of physical restraint is necessary to protect students or others from imminent harm or bodily injury, and taking the actions deemed necessary to protect students or others from imminent harm or bodily injury, are actions that involve the performance of discretionary, not ministerial, duties.

22. In some instances in which a student is an immediate danger to himself or herself or others, the school or program must determine when it becomes necessary to seek assistance from law enforcement and/or emergency medical personnel. Nothing in this policy shall be construed to interfere with the duties of law enforcement or emergency medical personnel.

23. School officials must notify a student’s parent or guardian immediately when emergency medical or law enforcement personnel remove a student from a school or program setting.