Board hears annual seclusion and restraint report citing Act 118 and new root-cause review

Chief of Schools Jason Gahan told the Board of Education the district is providing its annual summary of student seclusion and restraint data and described the district's training and compliance work under state law. "I am here tonight in front of you to report out, on our annual obligation of providing the Board of Education with a summary of our numbers of seclusion and restraints of students within the district, over the last school year," Gahan said.
Gahan reminded the board the district follows Act 118, which "took effect on 03/04/2020," and said the district must provide the board its annual report before Sept. 1 and submit required data to the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) by Dec. 1. He described training provided to new and continuing special education staff, administrators and instructional assistants and said the district breaks the required numbers down by school for local review.
Why it matters: Act 118 governs when and how schools may use seclusion or physical restraint. The board receives these annual figures to monitor compliance and to evaluate whether resources and training are aligned to student needs.
Board members asked for clarification about the report's columns and the presentation of duplicated versus unduplicated counts; Gahan confirmed the middle column in the packet shows the total number of students with at least one incident and that the district provides both school-level and student-level breakdowns as required by DPI. "The information is required to be provided to all of you, the Board of Education, before September 1 annually. And then we also submit this information to DPI by December 1 annually as well," Gahan said.
Gahan said some elementary schools have relatively higher incident counts because the district has been placing more students with higher needs in their resident (neighborhood) schools rather than in separate specialized programs. He said the district is working with a consultant from CESA 4, Risa Hawes, to facilitate a districtwide root-cause analysis that will draw on classroom- and student-level data to develop action plans.
Discussion-only items: board members and Gahan discussed whether resources are currently allocated to schools with greater needs, and Gahan said resources and training are deployed to those schools. No board vote or policy change occurred at the meeting.
Next steps: Gahan indicated the CESA 4 consultant has begun on-site work and the district will use the root-cause analysis to recommend districtwide practice changes where appropriate.