Federal Bill Update-Seclusion

FEDERAL BILL UPDATE


According to House leadership, this is what the day looks like. It will
all be broadcast on C-SPAN.
At approximately 12:30 p.m., the House is expected to reconvene and debate
the Rule for H.R. 4247 - Keeping All Students Safe Act.
Next votes: 1-2 hours on the Rule for H.R. 4247.
Note that the rule is just a procedural debate and vote and last about 1
hour. The House will debate and then vote on the rule for debate (limit time
and amendments). You will certainly hear people debating about the
underlying bill during this time as well.
Once the rule is adopted, we’ll then move to debate and votes on the
actual bill. I suspect it will be one hour to debate the bill (30 min/side), but
I haven’t seen the rule yet, so not sure.
When that time is expired, there will be a series of votes and finally we’
ll get to final passage vote. This could be as early as 3:30, but depends
on floor schedule.
Below is a note my communications director just sent out to reporters that
you are welcome to share with your lists/blog readers.
Committee on Education and Labor
_Click here to sign up for the “EdLabor Insider” e-newsletter_
(http://edlabor.house.gov/newsletter/)
*************************************************
We expect the House will begin debate on H.R. 4247, the Keeping All
Students Safe Act, at 12:30 today. As of now we expect the House to vote on the
bill around 3:30 or 4 – but that could change based on the floor schedule.
Again, the legislation will – for the first time – protect children from
abusive uses of restraint and seclusion in U.S. schools. This legislation
is a direct response to recent U.S. Government Accountability Office
investigation that found that at least hundreds of kids were being abused in
school by misuses of restraint or seclusion. The victims were children as young
as three and four, with disabilities and without disabilities, in public
and private schools. In some cases, children died.
GAO found that teachers are too often using these practices as frequent
discipline. They’re using it when children fidget in their chairs, are
unwilling to follow directions or leave a room.
In some cases, these abuses are nothing short of torture: teachers tying
children to chairs, taping their mouths shut, using handcuffs, denying them
food, fracturing bones, locking them in small dark spaces, and sitting on
them until they turn blue.
GAO also found that there are no federal laws on the books to keep this
from happening in schools, where kids spend most of their time. Hospitals
and other facilities that receive federal taxpayer dollars do have laws in
place to protect kids from these practices. Without a federal standard, state
laws are all over the map. Nineteen states have no laws whatsoever –
meaning kids have no protections.
The bill has bipartisan support – it was introduced by U.S. Reps. George
Miller (D-CA), and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who both serve on the
House Education and Labor Committee and are members of their respective party
leaderships.
Learn more about the GAO’s shocking investigation here:
_http://edlabor.house.gov/newsroom/2009/05/gao-report-finds-hundreds-of-a.shtml_
(http://edlabor.house.gov/newsroom/2009/05/gao-report-finds-hundreds-of-a.shtml) .
Read more about the bill here:
_http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2009/12/preventing-harmful-restraint-a.shtml_
(http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2009/12/preventing-harmful-restraint-a.shtml) .