Restraint and Seclusion in Maine: Using Data as a Tool
Transcript
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[Sounds of children playing on the playground]

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[Sounds of children in the classroom.]

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>>Deb: I would love to talk about a document
that came out just about when I started

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my advocacy path and this is a resource
document from the U.S. Department of

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Education and it talks about ways of
reducing restraint and seclusion. I mean

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that really was the intention of this
and it helped...it also talks about the

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definitions. Unfortunately, there's a
bunch of different definitions for

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restraint and seclusion from state to
the feds but this document is super

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important, and the reason why I bring
this up is because one of the things

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that I've studied over the years is the
data. And there's data that we get from

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the Maine Department of Education, and
there's also data that we get from the

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US Office of Civil Rights. Okay, and they
call it the Civil Rights Data Collection.

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And I've used it to actually look up
specific schools, to look for patterns of

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schools that might be having challenges
with too much use of restraint and

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seclusion. >>Jodie: Can I just ask a question about that?>>Deb: Absolutely. >>Jodie: So you are looking them up
based on the incident reports that were

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filed? Is that how you are evaluating
when the restraints and seclusion

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are taking place? >>Deb: That's an excellent
question because the Office of Civil

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Rights does it very differently than the
Maine Department of Education. >>Jodie: Okay. >>Deb: And

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the Maine Department of Education relies
on data supplied by superintendents

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and the Office of Civil Rights relies on
data...it could also be sent from this

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from superintendents but it's filled out
through a different stream. So, they're

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really, unfortunately, not completely
apples to apples. >>Jodie: Okay. >>Deb: But, they still

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matter. >>Jodie: Yeah. >>Deb: And it's really interesting
because you can go up and look up each

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district, each school, and find out
information about your school and

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sometimes it's really helpful to know
because, if your

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school's really low then you know it's
not a big habit in your school. But,

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unfortunately, some schools have gotten
into the habit of managing serious

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behavior with restraint and seclusion
and it's especially true for students

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with disabilities. So you can either
look on the Maine Department of

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Education's website. They have a restraint
and seclusion page and it includes the

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Chapter 33 Rule; it includes Maine's data;
and I think it's really important

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because, especially for students with
disabilities. I think they're

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misunderstood. They're not bad kids they
just have some really complex

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challenging behavior. >>Jodie: Yes. >>Deb: And I wish more people cared about the issue. It's a

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tough issue it really is. I hate...it's not
something that you have coffee talk over

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with any average person. >>Jodie: It's not and in
fact, I know we've talked before, that

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sometimes as you're entering the world
of restraint and seclusion when, you know,

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you're introduced to, that it can feel
sort of...it can feel private,

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it can feel, sort of, shameful. Like, Oh, I
don't want my, you know, kid's peers'

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parents knowing this. Like, what if they
don't want him hanging out with them, or,

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you know, it can...there can be a lot of
just emotions that are all balled up in

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it as well. >>Deb: Absolutely, and I've been
there, so I know. I don't...I haven't

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forgotten those days. Of course, like I've said a few times, this is what drives me

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to be an advocate and to help other
families and when... Using data is a tool

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just like behavioral data - and this is
more of a school-wide look. But, sometimes

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it gives you information about your
school, and what you're dealing with. And

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it's not easy, it's tricky. But, working
collaboratively with your team is what gets things done.

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