Parents ask President-elect Obama, Congress for national anti-restraint law to protect disabled children

From The Connecticut Post:

WASHINGTON -- Three Wilton, Conn., women urged President-elect Barack Obama and Congress Jan. 13 to enact legislation to protect disabled children from
abusive seclusion and restraint practices in public schools.

Connecticut approved such protections in 2007, but a report released Tuesday by the National Disability Rights Network shows that about 40 percent of the states in the nation have no laws, policies or guidelines concerning restraint or seclusion use in schools.

Eight years ago, Congress approved a law to protect children in Medicaid-funded homes and hospitals after 11-year-old Andrew McClain of Bridgeport, Conn., died in 1998 while being restrained at Elmcrest Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Portland, Conn.

"I thought we'd pretty much taken care of this," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who championed the 2000 legislation. "I didn't add the word 'school' to the bill. I regret that."

Dodd tried last year to expand the law to include schools but the legislation did not pass. He vowed Jan. 13 to try again and hopes that the new Congress and administration will be more receptive.

"These stories chilled me to the bone," Dodd said.

Gloria Bass, Maryann Lombardi and Jill Ely choked up Tuesday as they described their experiences in the Wilton school system that led to Connecticut enacting its law in 2007.

Bass, a grandmother given custody of two special needs boys, described how grandson Arty had been confined for months while at school to a storage closet without her knowledge.

Lombardi said her 9-year-old autistic son, who does not speak, was routinely placed in isolation in a storage closet when he acted out.

And, Ely said her son injured his arm as he beat it against the door trying to get out of a similar isolation room in the high school -- noting that one witness reported that on Sept. 9, 2005 he was left crying and whimpering for almost the entire day.

A Wilton Bulletin investigation in August 2006 found that the school's padded safe room where Ely's son was held had never been inspected by the fire marshal nor received a certificate of operation from the Building Department.

"There needs to be a law to protect these children," Ely said.

Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, said that his organization has found similar abuses reported across the nation.

"Incredibly, we found a disturbing trend that should not be happening," he said. His organization is recommending legislation that would ban the use of seclusion in schools and severely restrict the use of restraints to trained individuals and only where the immediate physical safety of the student, staff or other person is otherwise at risk.

Decker also wants legislation that would require prompt reporting when restraint or seclusion is used.

The House Education and Labor Committee plans to hold hearings on the report, according to its chairman, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.

"This report raises serious questions about the treatment of school children," he said. "No child should be at risk or in danger while at school, no matter what the circumstances."