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Iowa Department of Education given more time to reach seclusion room consensus
Erin Jordan
Nov. 22, 2017 2:31 pm
The Iowa Department of Education has been granted a three-month extension to respond to a request to revise state rules for secluding and restraining students.
In an order signed Monday, Iowa Education Department Director Ryan Wise said the parties involved have agreed to give the state 90 days beyond the Nov. 27 deadline to respond to the petition. That petition was filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Disability Rights Iowa and several other Iowa lawyers.
'In any educational change, consensus is essential to success and the parties are continuing to work toward a consensus,” Wise wrote.
The petition, drafted by Mary Richard, a Coralville lawyer, asks the Education Department to revise Chapter 103 of Iowa Administrative Code so seclusion rooms are used only in emergencies 'when a child's behavior poses an immediate threat of serious bodily injury to the child or others” - and not as discipline or punishment for students.
The attorneys want the state to better define seclusion and physical restraint and provide specific circumstances in which seclusion and restraint may or may not be used. The proposal also would make seclusion rooms no more restrictive than necessary.
Seclusion rooms - used in many Iowa districts - are intended to temporarily isolate aggravated students to keep them from harming others or themselves. A 2016 Gazette investigation found some instances where the rooms were used simply to punish bad behavior.
A state probe found in June that while the Iowa City school district handled most of 455 reviewed seclusion incidents properly, 18 reports showed students placed in seclusion for minor infractions that weren't a safety risk, 30 reports had missing information and three reports showed kids were put in seclusion for more than 50 minutes without permission from a parent or administrator.
Wise said in the order the petitioners and department officials had meetings Aug. 11, Sept. 15 and Nov. 8.
'My department colleagues report to me that these meetings continue to review the proposed rulemaking, are informative, cordial, and productive,” Wise wrote. Representatives agreed Nov. 8 they were willing to postpone the state's deadline in order to reach consensus on some or all of the requests, Wise wrote.
The Education Department can't be compelled to change its rules, but must give the proposal 'fair consideration,” according to Iowa Code.
Iowa City Superintendent Stephen Murley announced Nov. 7 the district is phasing out closet-like seclusion rooms now used in 11 elementary schools, Northwest Junior High and City High School.
However, the district of 14,200 students will maintain its practice of restraining or isolating agitated students in danger of harming themselves or others. Staff instead will use offices, conference rooms or empty classrooms to separate such students from peers, Murley said.
A Cedar Rapids school district investigation last spring found a Pierce Elementary third-grader was secluded for behavior that did not rise to the level required by law and was placed in a room not approved for seclusion.
l Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com