This story by Lisa Scagliotti first appeared in the Waterbury Roundabout on May 25.
A little over a year after learning that its school district was using restraint and seclusion with students at an alarming rate, the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board has adopted a new policy that officially bans most uses of the practices starting with the 2023-24 school year in the fall.
The move means that the school district will now have stricter guidelines in place than state policy allows when it comes to employees and contracted staff who need to manage challenging student behaviors.
The issue has been a top priority this school year after the district’s use of the practices was found to be particularly high among schools in Vermont. Former board member and Brookside Primary School special education teacher Brian Dalla Mura brought the matter to the attention of the board and administration in spring 2022. Dalla Mura, who now works in another school district, pointed to statistics showing reported incidents at what was then Thatcher Brook Primary School in Waterbury in the 2017-18 school year. He found that 281 reports were made based on data collected by the federal Office of Civil Rights.
The 2017 figures are the most recent available and they show 11 Vermont schools with more than 50 restraints, only four of which had greater than 100. Fayston Elementary had 105 restraints and Thatcher Brook was the only one with more than 200, Dalla Mura found. The Harwood district’s total across all schools for that year was 451, he said.
According to the state definitions, physical restraint means using physical force “to prevent an imminent and substantial risk of bodily harm to the student or others.” The Harwood district’s new policy applies to prone and supine restraints. Prone physical restraint means holding a student face down on their stomach using physical force in order to control the student’s movement. Supine restraint means holding a student on their back using physical force for the same purpose. The techniques can be dangerous and even lethal as they impact the child’s ability to breathe.
Seclusion refers to confining a student “alone in a room or area from which the student is prevented or reasonably believes he or she will be prevented from leaving,” according to the state definition. Doctors, psychologists and advocates say the experience can be traumatizing to a child. This does not include a “time-out” situation where a student is not left alone and is under adult supervision, according to the state rules.
The issue came to light as the district’s administration was in transition. Brigid Nease was in the final weeks of her tenure as superintendent and current Superintendent Mike Leichliter was preparing to start in his new role on July 1. Leichliter moved to Vermont from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he worked as a superintendent in a system that bans the practices entirely. Vermont is among a minority of states that still allows the tactics to be used with children as young as preschoolers.
When the current school year opened last August, Harwood staff and contractors who work as support staff for special education were prohibited from using the restraining techniques and from using closed rooms for seclusion.
Administrators on May 24 shared statistics with the school board saying there have been 39 incidences of restraint — none using prone or supine methods — so far this year compared with 129 by this time last school year. Five restraints in the 2021-22 school year were prone restraints, Leichliter added. Also this year, there have been no seclusions compared with 30 last year, officials said.
School administrators this year have worked on modifying district protocols, they’ve added in new trainings, and a school board committee began drafting a new policy to address the issue.
A parallel process began in Montpelier this year led by Waterbury state Rep. Theresa Wood, D-Waterbury, with the introduction of a bill that would look to ban prone and supine restraints and seclusion statewide. Although state lawmakers took testimony, the legislation did not advance and remains pending for the legislature to take up in 2024.
An exception permits some seclusion
In April, the school board committee completed drafting a policy that calls for the elimination of prone and supine restraints. It also would prohibit seclusion with one exception being “in situations where physical restraint is contraindicated for a particular student.” That exception would only be in place until June 30, 2024, according to the new policy.
Leichliter and other administrators assured the board that they believed the exception is unlikely to be used and that those circumstances are rare and have not occurred this year or in recent memory.
That exception led several board members to not vote for the new policy on Wednesday. While the measure received nine votes in favor, Fayston representatives Mike Bishop and Danielle Dukette both voted no; Duxbury member Life LeGeros abstained. The chair typically does not vote; Waterbury board member Marlena Tucker-Fishman was absent.
All three who were not in the “yes” column thanked the policy committee and the administrators for their work on the policy but said they would have liked to see a full ban on seclusion.
“I don’t think it makes any sense to let it go for another year,” Bishop said.
Dukette agreed, calling the new policy “a substantial step forward” that falls short of the input the board heard from the community on the issue. “The input from the community was quite extensive and very passionate. There are strong feelings against the use of seclusion,” she said. “They are now working effectively without it … I had to vote in support for what the community has spoken so strongly about. That’s my job on this.”
Leichliter said the point was discussed at length at the policy committee level with administrators. “While the belief is that the district wants no instances of seclusion, the committee felt that if a parent felt that for reasons like personal physical trauma that seclusion was preferred as opposed to restraint, there should be a very specific procedure written that would consider this as an option with medical documentation,” he said.
The new policy also requires that school staff follow state guidelines in using seclusion. Procedures on how to implement seclusion under this new approach are needed for next school year, he noted.
LeGeros acknowledged the challenge the committee had in crafting a policy that charts new ground. “It is such a tough issue because there was just a lot of harm done by our district and probably resulting trauma from that. It’s awkward because most of us weren’t necessarily here or at this table during that time,” he said. “But when there’s a process that’s creating harm — especially disproportional to people who are from marginalized communities — you gotta stop the harm. I appreciate the leadership from [Leichliter] for stopping that as far as restraints go. Ultimately, the fact that we allow seclusion to last another year, there’s no secret that I’m disappointed in that.”
Reached on May 25 after the vote, Wood echoed disappointment that seclusion was not fully banned for another year but she said she was happy to see the district take the first step in moving away from the tactics that are considered harmful and dangerous. “The school district has made great progress in the last year, and I look forward to continuing that progress for the safety of students and staff. I am hopeful that the bill I have introduced banning seclusion and restraint, H.409, will be adopted during the next legislative session,” Wood said. “Although the state has a policy on the use of restraint and seclusion, obviously there is no enforcement and very little data tracking on this issue. The impact on students is undeniable and so this needs to change on a statewide level.”
Dalla Mura, whose experience witnessing restraint and seclusion at Brookside prompted him to research the issue and call for change, said last week that he was happy to see the new policy adopted for the coming school year. “I look forward to the 2024-2025 school year when seclusion will also be banned in HUUSD schools,” he said. “Although the new policy gives me hope that fewer students will be subjected to inappropriate and dangerous restraint practices moving forward, my heart goes out to the students and families that were impacted by past practices.”
Warren board member Jonathan Young reflected on the issue just before the vote was taken, saying he didn’t think the school board and administration could have made such a significant change so quickly just several years ago when he joined the board. “It’s amazing and refreshing and hopeful to me that we’ve come so far so quickly,” he said. “We made good decisions. It makes me proud to be part of this board.”
Board member Ashley Woods of Warren chaired the policy committee. “It was a huge learning experience for me — just the intensity of this issue and how important it is to this community,” Woods said, thanking a number of individuals involved in the process including the superintendent, Director of Student Services Jon Berliner, consultant Dyane Lewis Carrere who is an author and expert on childhood trauma and education, and Dalla Mura. “And all the people who have chimed in and made their feelings known … all the passionate parents who have struggles. We get it, this is a big deal. It’s a big policy change. Thanks to the whole board for riding this wave with us all.”
Board Vice Chair Kelley Hackett of Waterbury thanked the policy committee members, acknowledging the gravity of the subject matter. “I know that it was really, really just heart-wrenching at times … hearing things, and just going through the emotions,” she said. “I really appreciate the time and effort that you took.”
A request to acknowledge past harm
At the start of last week’s meeting, Dalla Mura was the only individual to comment during the public comment period. He thanked those in the community who advocated for the revised restraint-seclusion policy and then asked the board to not move on without acknowledging the impacts of past actions under the old policy.
“I hope that we’ll hear how the district plans to repair the harm and trauma that it’s inflicted on its students. I hope to hear a public apology to the victims of inappropriate restraint and seclusion, and I hope to hear the district take accountability,” he said.
He pointed to inadequate oversight over the years from the state Agency of Education, Board of Education and Mental Health Department. “However, there’s no excuse for the harm that has been inflicted upon hundreds of individual students in the care of HUUSD over the past decade — thousands if you include witnesses,” he said.
Dalla Mura said he believes restraint and student seclusion were implemented in an intentional way over the years in the school district. “Harwood chose to allow contracted service providers to hold young children face down on the floor. In fact, we paid millions of dollars to outside agencies to do this. Harwood also made a conscious decision to build and use a seclusion room to isolate students,” he noted. “These were conscious decisions, not accidents. Ignorance and good intentions are not an excuse for the harmful impacts.”
Banning prone restraints and seclusion is just the beginning of reversing harmful practices, Dalla Mura suggested. “Once you vote to approve this policy … the job of the board is not done,” he said, calling for the policy subcommittee to continue.
“We know that countless parents and staff were ignored and silenced when they raised concerns about how their students were being restrained and secluded. Please consider hearing testimony from additional experts about how you can prevent this from going undetected in the future. Please consider working on a complaint and investigation process,” he said. “This district desperately needs help with accountability. Don’t blame this on a statewide problem. We shouldn’t need a law to tell us what’s right. Harwood should do what’s right for the sake of doing what’s right.”
Looking ahead
The board as a group did not address the issue of the impacts of the past restraint and seclusion policy. Board members, however, did discuss the possible future role of the committee that drafted the new policy. Committee member Cindy Senning of Duxbury said she found the work the committee did in researching the issue valuable and suggested it would be beneficial for the group to follow through as the policy is implemented. She noted how the seclusion exception ends in a year and that the shift in protocols would impact the relationships the district has with the outside agencies who contract to provide behavioral support staff.
Others agreed.
The superintendent noted that it’s the board’s prerogative whether to keep a committee active. “It’s up to the board to provide oversight,” he said.
Board Chair Kristen Rodgers of Moretown said that could be something the board discusses at a future meeting. “This could be part of a larger discussion in the fall,” Rodgers said.
Leichliter and Berliner discussed steps ahead involving staff in all schools as the district looks for new strategies to put into practice with students. They said the shift will involve more training and learning for staff.
Looking ahead to next year, staff training will continue in trauma-informed practices and social-emotional learning. Each school will have crisis teams, Leichliter noted, and one aim is to have school psychologists in the mix. One challenge is staffing, he added, noting that there currently are approximately six openings for special education staff in the district. A new districtwide position has been created for next year that will be filled by current Moretown Elementary Principal Mandy Couturier.
Leichliter and Beliner said that they will continue to rely on experts in the field who they have come to know over the past year including Guy Stephens, founder of the nonprofit advocacy organization Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint, who has connected the district with resources.
Educator and consultant Carrere was well-received on two visits this year, Leichliter said, once last fall for a districtwide training and again in January to work with staff at Brookside. “Teachers have asked for her again,” he said, noting that she will return in June. “We’re continuing that deeper dive with schoolwide strategies to help prevent situations that involve any type of restraint.”