Michigan educators reported using potentially traumatic tactics at record pace last year

Michigan educators reported using seclusion and restraint — potentially traumatic maneuvers meant only for emergencies — on students with disabilities more last academic year than almost any other time since lawmakers forced schools to track how often they applied the controversial tactics on public school children, state data shows.

In the most recent school year, educators secluded students with disabilities 11,910 times, almost 30% more than the previous school year and the most ever recorded since Michigan first began collecting this data in the 2017-18 school year. They restrained students with disabilities 9,076 times, up 20% from the last school year.

The numbers don't bode well for at least one Michigan school on a national scale, either.

Newly released federal data shows the Seiter Education Center, a rural school serving 74 students in Montcalm County, recorded secluding children with disabilities more times in one academic year than any other school in the nation — 734 instances.

The data is from the 2020-21 school year, the most recent year for which federal information is available. That year's data may be affected by the coronavirus pandemic, when schools were often intermittently closed, likely leading to lower numbers.

These results mirror the findings of a 2022 Free Press investigation that showed despite state laws crafted to limit the polarizing practices, Michigan schools are using them more than ever.

While federal law enforcement and education officials are forcing school districts across the country to abandon seclusion and curtail restraint, state officials are not ready to make significant changes.

Key Michigan legislators told the Free Press everyone wants to ensure children get the care and treatment they need. But the lawmakers say they are still studying the practices to determine what — if any — updates are necessary.

"I'm still very much in the learning process, I don't think I've put anything on the table or taken anything off," said state House Education Committee Chairman Matt Koleszar, D-Plymouth, during a recent phone interview.

State Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, agreed, saying she's not ready to commit to any specific policy.

"I'm not saying I'm not open to anything," Polehanki said in a phone interview. "Am I open to ending seclusion and limiting restraint, which seems to be something that other states are leaning to? I guess the answer is, I don't know."

The biggest teachers union in the state may resist changes that it thinks create too many limits on the practices, arguing complex student behavioral issues bedevil educators in the classroom.

"My question becomes, if done appropriately, and if, as a last resort, does that trauma (of secluding or restraining a student) outweigh or, in some ways undermine, the trauma experienced by the other students in that class?" said Doug Pratt, a spokesman for the Michigan Education Association.

Experts say restraint and seclusion can inflict significant trauma on a child, a sentiment echoed by students left in seclusion rooms or physically restricted from moving. Under Michigan laws passed in 2016 that were meant to curb the use of these practices, restraint and seclusion should be used only in emergencies, when a student poses a threat to themselves or others. Educators say growing behavioral issues sometimes leave them no choice but to turn to restraint and seclusion — the decision a dire call for more help.

The vast majority of students secluded and restrained, both in Michigan and across the country, are children with diagnosed disabilities.

Getting ahead of it 'upstream'

The numbers are too high and laws are too vague, said Cassie Atallah, a parent of a son with a disability who she said suffered substantial trauma due to seclusion and restraint at a school in west Michigan. She's also one of the co-leaders of Michigan Advocates to End Seclusion and Restraint, a parent-led group formed about a year ago. Atallah's group wants the state to emphasize research-backed and trauma-informed training and provide more support for educators and students to intervene before a mental health crisis reaches a point where adults turn to seclusion and restraint.

"If we can get way ahead of this way upstream, before the crisis situations happen, then we can prevent some of these situations from even occurring in the first place," she said.

The school district that oversees the Seiter Center, with the most instances of seclusion of students with disabilities in the nation, is Montcalm Area Intermediate School District. The district is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for its use of the tactics. The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights also opened a review in July, records show. Free Press journalists first reported that Montcalm had isolated students 4,000 times in five years, more than any other Michigan school district, and that administrators would not disclose why. In more than a year since, Montcalm officials have said little else about their restraint and seclusion practices.

Since 2020, federal law enforcement resolved investigations into at least six districts across the country over possible discriminatory seclusion and restraint practices. In five of the inquiries, districts agreed to prohibit seclusion.

Montcalm officials did not answer specific questions posed by Free Press reporters for this story. Instead, Superintendent Kyle Hamlin emailed a statement, reading, in part: "In every learning environment, students will have challenging moments with their peers or in the learning process.  When that occurs, our team utilizes a range of tools that allow students to de-escalate or engage in an appropriate fashion."

Hamlin did not answer questions about why the Seiter Center reported the most instances of seclusion of students with disabilities in the country. The Free Press has reached out to Seiter school officials for comment.

The larger set of state numbers also raises questions about the use of restraint and seclusion in Michigan schools and the transparency around the use of these practices. Federal education officials are investigating 12 Michigan districts for potentially discriminatory restraint and seclusion practices, second in the nation only to Texas, where public schools serve four times the number of students.

These investigations can languish, though: Inquiries into allegations involving Macomb ISD and Richmond Community Schools date back to 2015.

When the Free Press first reported that Michigan educators had restrained or secluded more than 90,000 students in the five years since lawmakers declared they'd essentially banned the practice, a spokesman for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said it was "clear" the state could improve its restraint and seclusion laws.

Since then, no lawmaker has introduced legislation aimed at any reform. Existing laws come with no consequences for people who restrain or seclude a child in a manner that violates the law. Even the architect of that legislation, former Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, said the only way he could get legislators' support for bills attempting to rein in restraint and seclusion practices was if the laws were toothless.

Both Koleszar and Polehanki spent years as classroom teachers before running for office. Neither could recall substantial usage of seclusion or restraint, at least on students with whom they regularly interacted, during their tenures.

They also acknowledged a need for more resources dedicated to mental health programming; Polehanki pointed to more than $300 million in the most recently approved state budget dedicated to help schools hire psychologists and social workers, along with more broadly addressing student safety.

Frequently, paraprofessionals are the adults in schools who interact the most with students who have a diagnosed disability. There is a shortage of these workers and the pay is poor — a posting at one Wayne County school showed compensation at roughly $15 an hour — while the expectations are very high, Koleszar noted.

"You are talking about a population of school employees who are your least paid working with your most vulnerable," Koleszar said.

"So one thing I can think of right away that I've talked a lot about is investigating in the budget how we can help schools hire more paraprofessionals that are also the best qualified paraprofessionals, and also retain them."

Polehanki and Koleszar said they've heard from some districts about definitions in current law. Specifically, the federal definition of seclusion includes the word "alone" while the state definition does not, in the context of leaving a student in a room. Polehanki said she's heard from at least one district that this perceived disparity may create confusion on what constitutes seclusion and what needs to be reported.

Frequently, schools that use seclusion have designated areas for the practice, aptly named "seclusion rooms." The law states schools must file a record every time either practice is used; a standardized version of this record created by the Michigan Department of Education notes that seclusion and restraint are allowed only during emergencies.

"If you look at aligning the definitions, pumping more funding and support into schools and getting better acute psychiatric centers around Michigan, I think those three things taken together can help," Polehanki said.

Michigan Advocates to End Seclusion and Restraint wants changes to other definitions in state law. The group's position statement calls for revisions to how the law describes emergency restraint and seclusion. The definition of what constitutes an emergency is too vague, said Atallah and Melissa Freel, another co-leader of the group and parent of a child exposed to restraint and seclusion.

Under state law, both tactics are described as "last resort emergency safety" interventions. An emergency situation is defined as, "a situation in which a pupil's behavior poses imminent risk to the safety of the individual pupil or to the safety of others. An emergency situation requires an immediate intervention."

"What constitutes an imminent risk to the safety of others: Does kicking someone or throwing a shoe or even saying a verbal threat, does that constitute a threat to safety? That's very unclear," Atallah said.

Keeping educators safe

Reform may be both welcome − and come with resistance − from the state's largest teachers union, the Michigan Education Association. Pratt cited an October survey finding that the majority of educators who participated said they faced disruptive behavior in the classroom and that 49% have had to evacuate classrooms due to unsafe student behavior. More than a quarter, 27%, say they have been physically injured by a student.

Pratt suggested a mental health crisis across society is reflected in schools, with "verbal outbursts, the destruction of property," and "even having to go and evacuate other students and disrupt student learning" due to unsafe behavior. Educators have to balance protecting all students with protecting a disruptive student, he said.

"Parents deserve to know that educators are helping all of their students and that it doesn't tilt too far one way or the other in terms of putting the health, safety and education of an individual student exhibiting disruptive behaviors up against the health, safety and education of everybody in that classroom," he said.

Pratt argues that the solution must be more nuanced than a state law change.

"That's the the big takeaway, is it can't be a one-size-fits-all solution. It's got to involve additional training, it has to involve making sure that every student is safe and every educator is safe," Pratt said.

Contact Lily Altavena at laltavena@freepress.com and Dave Boucher at dboucher@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan teachers used restraint, seclusion tactics at record pace