U.S. Department of Justice visiting 10 Cedar Rapids schools to review restraint, seclusion practices

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Department of Justice is conducting on-site visits this week of 10 Cedar Rapids schools as a part of an on ongoing review of the district’s policies, procedures and practices relating to the use of physical restraint and seclusion.

The Department of Justice has not filed any complaint or made any findings against the district, Superintendent Noreen Bush said in an email.

The district is collaborating and fully cooperating with the department’s request and “welcomes the opportunity to continue to improve our practices to support our students,” Bush said.

The Department of Justice is visiting the following schools: Arthur Elementary, Grant Wood Elementary, Harrison Connections, Jefferson High, Johnson STEAM Academy, Pierce Elementary, Polk Alternative Education Center, Taylor Elementary, Viola Gibson Elementary and Wilson Middle School.

Seclusion rooms are used in many Iowa school districts as a last resort if students are at risk of harming themselves or others.

An investigation into the use of seclusion rooms in Cedar Rapids schools was launched in 2017 after a complaint was made on behalf of a student at Pierce Elementary.

The student was held in a seclusion room because she wouldn’t stop crying, a violation of state seclusion rules.

Cedar Rapids elementary school students were held in seclusion rooms or physically restrained 237 times in the first month of the 2019-20 school year, The Gazette reported in 2020. This was more than 10 times a day and more than four times as much as in the first month of the 2015-16 school year.

At the time, the district did not disclose information showing why students were secluded and restrained.

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