A welcome end to seclusion in Cedar Rapids

Although it’s unfortunate it took an investigation by the Department of Justice to steer the Cedar Rapids Community School District in the right direction, we applaud the a settlement agreement announced this week that would end the use of seclusion in the district’s schools.

The agreement also will limit the use of restraints. The district will revise its restraint practices and procedures while reporting all uses of restrains and offering students counseling. The district will provide appropriate training for staff, adopt policies and procedures to assess suicide risk and offer crisis intervention and hire administrators to oversee the use of restraints.

The Justice Department found that Cedar Rapids schools repeatedly and inappropriately secluded and restrained students with disabilities, some as young as kindergartners, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Subdued and restrained students lost hundreds of hours of instructional time.

“Students with disabilities should not be subjected to discriminatory and abusive seclusion and restraint practices that deny them equal access to education,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a news release Monday, as reported by The Gazette’s Grace King. “When schools isolate and unlawfully restrain children with disabilities, rather than provide them with the supports needed for success in the classroom, they violate the promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Our agreement puts the Cedar Rapids Community School District on a path to significant institutional change and reform,” Clarke said.

We agree with the department’s assessment and welcome reforms.

It was The Gazette’s Erin Jordan who reported in January 2020 that 237 Cedar Rapids elementary students were restrained in just the first month of the 2019-2020 school year. That was four times as many as were restrained during the same period in 2015-2016. The district did not disclose details on why students were secluded and restrained.

The Department of Justice inquiry began later that year, with investigators visiting 10 Cedar Rapids elementary and middle schools.

Reporting all instances of restraint for evaluation is an important step. But training will be key to studying that data while creating appropriate behavior intervention plans for students.

We’re hopeful that the district is on a better path, but it will take training and hard work to reduce seclusion numbers. We’ve seen it happen in Iowa City, where the district reached an all-time low in the number of times restraints and seclusion were used during the 2021-2022 school year. The Department of Justice will watching to make sure Cedar Rapids stays on the right path.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com