Tell your legislators….
to vote YES on SHB 1479!
2. Sign Disability Rights Washington’s Letter to the House of Representatives
We all benefit when strategies to address challenging behaviors in classrooms work. The use of isolation and restraint doesn’t work, and according to research, the recent report from Disability Rights Washington and the ACLU of Washington, and The OSPI Crisis Response Workgroup Report, it actually increases harm to students and staff and makes things worse.
The Substitute House Bill 1479:
- Clarifies the definitions of isolation and restraint.
- Protects the continued use of quiet spaces, calm-down rooms, and physically escorting a student.
- Improves reporting requirements to increase oversight, target where resources are needed, and reduce incidences.
- Preserves the use of physical restraint in instances of imminent likelihood of serious harm.
- Increases technical assistance, monitoring, and support for Local Education Agencies.
- Ends the use of mechanical and chemical restraint by school personnel.
- Provides professional development on de-escalation strategies and proven alternatives to restraint and isolation for paraeducators and educators in self-contained classrooms, and administrators.
- Improves School Board knowledge and oversight of the use of restraint and isolation in their schools.
- Ends the use of isolation rooms by August 1, 2025.
- Improves follow-up with staff, students, and families to review the incidents, improve planning, and provide for reflection and healing.
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Previous blog post about HB 1479: https://seattlespecialeducationptsa.org/f/call-to-action-2
