‘State of the art’ behavior support practices being implemented in Cedar Rapids schools

CEDAR RAPIDS — New directors of behavior supports in the Cedar Rapids Community School District have a goal to “work ourselves out of a job” as a part of a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, said Sandy Schmitz, executive director of behavior supports.

The agreement — signed in September 2022 — required the district to end the use of student seclusion in all school buildings and programs last year. Seclusion rooms are used in many school districts as a last resort if students are at risk of harming themselves or others. The agreement also required the district to make significant changes to limit the use of physical restraint and rethink how student behavior is analyzed and responded to.

Schmitz — along with director of behavior supports Tammy Beener — made a presentation of progress made under the agreement during a virtual forum Tuesday, which only a handful of people attended. The audience was invited to ask questions.

The Justice Department set a target date for the agreement to expire on June 30, 2026, when the district would securely have in place “state of the art” practices, Schmitz said.

“By the time we work through the agreement, good practices, good techniques and good strategies are so infused daily by teachers, office staff, bus drivers, principals and counselors, that student behaviors will be down and performance will be up,” Schmitz said. Schmitz said some indicators that practices are effective will be when data shows:

This also will lead to students feeling safer, Schmitz said.

Last year, the Cedar Rapids school board approved new policies required by the settlement. This included a crisis intervention protocol specifying proactive interactions, and crisis prevention and de-escalation techniques that should be used to prevent and, when necessary, respond to students experiencing behavioral challenges.

One of the key policy changes was working to prevent crises instead of intervening during or after an incident. “We don’t want to wait until a student is so upset and so far into crisis that we have to take extreme measures,” Schmitz said.

Schmitz said in addition to teaching staff, employees including office staff, custodians and even bus drivers will receive training on de-escalation — or using non-verbal, verbal and environmental interventions to respond to a student’s behavior.

Safety teams trained in physical restraint

Only a few employees at each school — who are a part of “safety teams” that respond to behavior crises involving students in their building — have been trained in psychical restraint techniques in accordance with a national program on crisis intervention.

"Physical restraint should be so rare, we shouldn’t have to train everybody in those techniques,“ Schmitz said. ”Research has shown if people know the techniques, they’re likely to use them.“

Physical restraint can be used only when a student is engaging in behavior that presents an immediate and imminent risk of injury to themselves or others, according to district policy. For example, Schmitz said this school year there was a situation where a student would run into the street. The student didn’t understand they could be hit by a car. or a car could swerve to avoid them and cause a crash.

School staff tried “multiple de-escalation” tactics, Schmitz said. “They tried everything to get the student out of the street. For whatever reason, it wasn’t working, so they needed to go and physically carry the student out from the middle of the street.”

After a student is physically restrained, the district is required to provide counseling or psychiatric services to the student no later than the end of the following school day, according to board policy. This is to help the student reestablish a sense of safety, connection and meaning into the school environment, Schmitz said.

Only safety team members can use physical restraint unless an emergency arises where the student engages in or attempts to engage in substantial bodily injury before the crisis prevention team is called or arrives, according to policy. If this happens, the crisis prevention team would take over the implementation of the restraint upon arrival.

Schmitz said each restraint is closely documented so staff can review the incident and consider what additional de-escalation strategies are needed.

The district works with Grant Wood Area Education Agency to assess student behavior and determine the purpose of the behavior. From there, a behavior intervention plan is created — an individualized plan designed to respond to problem behaviors.

Grant Wood AEA provides education services to seven counties in Eastern Iowa, including Linn and Johnson counties.

Maria Cashman, director of special education and associate chief administrator at Grant Wood AEA, said agency staff have been working with Cedar Rapids educators to evaluate and update almost every Individualized Education Plan — a legal document for students who need special education, which includes behavior supports — in the district. The agency has about 50 staff who support the Cedar Rapids district, Cashman said.

"This process has been arduous, but the district and AEA staff have been focused on using this experience to improve outcomes for students, and both of our organizations have used this process as a way to continue our learning together,“ Cashman said in an email to The Gazette.

An investigation in to the use of physical restraint and seclusion in Cedar Rapids schools by the Justice Department began in October 2020. The investigation concluded that instead of meeting the needs of students with disabilities that affect their behavior, the district subdued them through unnecessary restraints and improper confinement in small seclusion rooms, sometimes multiple times in a day and often for excessive periods. As a result, some students lost hundreds of hours of instructional time.

The Gazette’s K-12 education reporter, Grace King, has a family member who is a part of a safety team in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com