Dear, allies, neighbors, friends, and family,
Your advocacy is needed now!
Please email the WA Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee members and ask them to pass HB 1479 (Restraint & Isolation) out of the committee. It only takes a couple minutes to protect children in Washington from trauma, school to prison pipeline and and save lives. (See sample emails to legislators below.)
HB 1479, the Restraint and Isolation Bill, helps to make schools across Washington safer by giving school districts access to better strategies for supporting students. HB1479 would prohibit certain types of restraint – chemical and mechanical, and ban isolation beginning August 2, 2025.
This bill must be passed out of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Committee by cutoff on Wednesday, March 29, so please act quickly.
This bill provides targeted professional development training that would be prioritized for staff who provide educational services to students in Pre-K-5th grade, school building administrators, school districts and other providers of public educational services with high incidents of isolation, restraint, or Room Clear. school administrators are added to this list of people who would be prioritized for this training.
This bill prevents school districts from building new isolation rooms starting this year and existing rooms would be removed or repurposed by January 1, 2026.
SEND EMAIL TO Legislators and staff: [email protected], T’[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
SUBJECT: PASS HB 1479!
IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH RESTRAINT OR ISOLATION COPY & PASTE:
Dear Chair Wellman and Members of the Committee,
Please pass E2SHB 1479 out of committee. My child is ___ years old. He/She is/They are in ___ grade. He/She was/ They were restrained at school by ___ because ___.
What they really needed was ___ .
Please ban isolation and restrict restraint as described in E2SHB 1479.
Your Constituent:
(Optional: Include a sentence or two about how isolation/restraint has impacted my child short and or long term. Any pictures of your child/children to show who this bill is about, but also Isolation rooms documents you believe would be powerful for legislators to see.)
IF YOU ARE A CONCERNED HUMAN COPY & PASTE:
Dear Chair Wellman and Members of the Committee,
Please pass E2SHB 1479.
This bill will improve school climates, increase safety for staff and students, and support schools across Washington in moving to best practices. Locking kids into isolation rooms leads to suicidal thoughts, self-harm and long-term trauma.
The targeted professional development in this bill supports our educators so they can support all of our students.
We can and MUST use strategies that work to keep everyone in our schools safe, and E2SHB increases educator’s ability to use best practice.
Please ban isolation and restraint as described in E2SHB 1479. PASS THIS BILL!
Our school communities thank you for your advocacy!
Your Constituent
