Puncture marks line the padded walls of a school seclusion room in North Carolina in 2022.
Bethanie Simms/WHQR
A yearlong national investigation by Hearst Newspapers, “When schools use force” provides the most comprehensive look to date at how often restraint and seclusion are used in America’s schools – and how often children are harmed or die as a result.
The project started when a Hearst Newspapers reporter learned of cases of restraint in Connecticut and asked, how often does this happen?
To answer this question, a team of reporters at Hearst Newspapers scrutinized years of data on restraint and seclusion use nationwide from the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection – and studied the flaws in that dataset.
We asked every state education agency in the country for any data they may collect on the use of restraint and seclusion and analyzed those records, which revealed troubling trends around these practices.
Ten states and the District of Columbia said they don’t track data on the use of restraint and seclusion in schools.
For one of those states, New York, we built a database of our own. Through a series of requests under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, we obtained tens of thousands of pages of incident reports, logs and other records documenting incidents of restraint at 22 school districts. Some districts were slow to respond and initially objected to releasing the information.
That process also revealed poor and antiquated recordkeeping by many schools. Records came in a wide range of formats, but often we received photocopies of paper forms teachers had completed by hand. We used a machine learning software called Amazon Textstract to help us pull information from thousands of these forms and convert it into usable data.
Our reporters also probed the use of restraint and seclusion in Connecticut and Texas.
After learning there is no official tracking of how many children have died from restraint and seclusion in the U.S., we decided to research such cases ourselves. Building upon past research by academics and disability advocates, we scoured news articles, court records and government reports to find at least 85 children have died following restraint and seclusion incidents over the last three decades. Some of those incidents happened in schools, though most occurred in residential facilities or other settings that cater to children with special needs.
And after learning there is no federal law governing the use of restraint and seclusion in schools, we surveyed state laws across the country. We pored over statutes and regulations, referenced past research by scholars and attorneys and queried education agencies about their state’s laws.
Some schools choose not to use restraint and seclusion. We explored the alternative methods that they find effective.
All of our work was supported by extensive interviewing. We interviewed more than 70 parents, students, teachers and school administrators, most of whom had direct experience with restraint and seclusion, across the country. Those families often provided us records buttressing their accounts. We also spoke to lawmakers, policy experts, professors, attorneys and advocates.
Where possible, we toured school facilities and seclusion rooms.
Components of this investigation were supported with funding from the Data-Driven Reporting Project. The funding was used to pay for software and support to analyze handwritten documents and some freelance photography. The Data-Driven Reporting Project is funded by the Google News Initiative in partnership with Northwestern University | Medill and awards funds to investigative journalists working for local news outlets and outlets serving underrepresented communities across the U.S. and Canada.
How to access our data
Are you interested in accessing our data on restraint and seclusion? If so, please email Data Editor Matt Rocheleau at matt.rocheleau@hearstmediact.com.
How to contact us, share your story and tips
Are you interested in sharing your personal story or other information around the use of restraint and seclusion with us?
If you have tips, documents, or other information that you would like to share with a reporter, please contact: Emilie Munson at emilie.munson@timesunion.com or on Twitter: @emiliemunson; or Matt Rocheleau at 508-265-2050, matt.rocheleau@hearstmediact.com or on Twitter: @mrochele.
If you would like to share information anonymously, please indicate that when you contact us. For additional security, use encrypted methods. Signal: 347-541-8115, or securenewstips@protonmail.com
A yearlong investigation by Hearst Newspapers examines the controversial use of restraint and seclusion in schools nationwide.
- Controversial and often used, these little-known practices cause harm, even death, among U.S. schoolchildren
- Search to see data schools reported on use of restraint, seclusion
- What are restraint and seclusion? 5 things to know about the controversial practices used in US schools
- The U.S. regulates how hospitals can use restraint and seclusion. Why not schools?
- Not all schools use restraint or seclusion practices on students. Here’s a look at some alternatives.
- ‘He didn’t deserve that’: The stories of 13 children, young adults who died after restraint or seclusion
- CT students restrained, secluded thousands of times causing dozens of injuries: ‘Something is not working’
- Teachers and police restrained thousands of students in 22 New York districts
- Some New York schools confine students in 'time out rooms' for hours
- ‘I hurt’: Texas special education students face interventions that can be deadly
- A state-by-state look at laws, practices, and data collection
- How we reported our project on restraint and seclusion in U.S. schools
- Restraint and seclusion in schools: What should be changed?
- 'Unacceptable': lawmakers pursue reforms around restraint and seclusion in schools
- More than 2,000 Connecticut students restrained or secluded in 2020-21, new data shows
- NY students ‘deliberately inappropriately’ restrained 214 times in recent years, state says
- Use of child restraints in Texas schools prompts call for more oversight
- Bill would restrict restraint and ban seclusion in New York schools
- New York officials consider new rules on restraint and seclusion in school
- Bill would end seclusion, change restraint rules in CT schools
- Parents, advocates ask lawmakers to end restraint, seclusion in CT schools
- Her son was restrained and secluded dozens of times. Now, she's devoting herself to ending the practices
- Brookfield schools aim to limit restraint and seclusion of students with new policy
- Bill limiting restraint, seclusion in CT schools advances out of committee — but without key provision