Report: Seclusion and restraint incidents in Wisconsin schools down 8% statewide in 2022-23

While physically restraining or separating students from their classmates should only be used as a "last resort" by schools, it still happened thousands of times at schools across the state in 2022-23, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Still, the number of these instances has dropped since the 2019-20 school year, when the state started tracking those numbers.

The DPI's fourth annual report, examining the 2022-23 school year, notes that the vast majority of cases involved students with disabilities. Although those students comprise just 14.9% of the statewide student population, 80% of students who were secluded and 78% of those who were restrained were students with disabilities, the report said. Most incidents of seclusion or restraint — over 80% — took place in elementary schools.

In all, about 5,400 instances of seclusion and about 6,400 instances of restraint were reported at schools statewide in 2022-23.

"The numbers included in this report represent thousands of actual lived experiences that can dramatically impact a child’s educational experiences and lifelong outcomes," the report said.

While the report didn't pin down why these incidents continue to occur, or why students with disabilities are disproportionately affected, it did note that students statewide are reporting declining mental health, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. However, Wisconsin only has statewide YRBS survey data for high school students, while seclusion and restraint incidents affect students of all grade levels.

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How are ‘seclusion’ and ‘restraint’ defined?

The state defines seclusion as the "involuntary confinement of a student, apart from other students." When a student is secluded, they are physically prevented from leaving and must be supervised at all times; staff are not allowed to lock students in a room.

The state defines physical restraint as a restriction that limits a student’s ability to freely move their torso, arms, legs or head. According to state guidelines, restraint is only to be used when a student's behavior presents a "clear, present and imminent risk to the physical safety of the student or others."

Only trained school staff and law enforcement officers may use seclusion and restraint in schools. Whenever these methods are used on a student, schools must inform the student's parents, the local school board and DPI. However, police officers follow their own training and protocols and aren't subject to the same limitations and conditions as school staff in terms of what methods of seclusion and restraint they can use, the DPI noted.

While both seclusion and restraint methods may be used on the same student, seclusion incidents and restraint incidents are counted separately in the school's reports.

Total seclusion and restraint incidents declined between 2021-22 and 2022-23, report finds

As a result of 2019's Wisconsin Act 118, Wisconsin public schools and many private schools are required to submit annual reports on their use of seclusion and restraint in schools. The DPI released its report and analysis April 23.

Statewide, seclusion and restraint incidents declined by 8.7% and 8%, respectively, between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years.

The DPI has been tracking seclusion and restraint incidents only since the 2019-20 school year; in a news release, the organization urged caution when considering patterns of these incidents over time.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic affected how often students were in the classroom in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, the DPI anticipates increasingly informative information will become available as schools continue to collect data about the use of seclusion and restraint.

By using reported data as a tool to work with districts, DPI aims to limit how often seclusion and restraint incidents occur.

“We want to help every student succeed in our schools, so we must make every effort to prevent the use of seclusion and restraint,” said state superintendent Jill Underly in a news release. "We must remember each of these reported incidents represents a traumatic lived experience — both for a student and for school staff."

While the DPI also called the overall drop in incidents "progress," Underly called for more support to train school staff to reduce these incidents even further, using "trauma-informed practices to help address the unique behavioral needs of students.”

The report also said that school districts and boards can help reduce these incidents by implementing social-emotional learning, recognizing the needs of students from diverse cultural backgrounds and beginning the process of becoming a trauma-sensitive school.

More: Appleton Area Schools see drop in student absences, but work is still needed

Appleton schools report higher numbers of seclusion incidents for 2022-23; Menasha and Neenah schools decrease

The Appleton Area School District reported 313 seclusion and 107 restraint incidents in the 2022-23 school year, according to the DPI, compared to 278 seclusions and 109 restraints reported in 2021-2022. The latest numbers represent a rise of about 13% in the number of seclusions, while the number of restraints remained about the same.

In a statement to the Post-Crescent, AASD executive director of special education Amy Steiner said that, in an attempt to reduce the use of seclusion and restraint, the district has focused on "an instructional response to behavior" over the past two years that includes "verbal and non-verbal communication with students."

During the 2023-2024 school year, for example, she said over 600 AASD staff were trained in nonviolent crisis intervention "as both a proactive and responsive way to address student behavioral needs."

"Seclusion and restraint are last-resort interventions only used when there is imminent danger to the safety of the student or others," Steiner added.

Unlike last year, no Fox Cities schools were among the top 10 in the state for seclusion and restraint incidents. Only one public school, an elementary school in Kenosha, reported over 100 restraint incidents in 2022-23, while no public schools had more than 80 seclusion incidents.

The Menasha Joint School District's numbers decreased in 2022-23 with only seven seclusions and 19 restraints, as opposed to 18 seclusions and 46 restraints reported in 2021-22. Butte des Morts Elementary School, which placed high on the list when data collection began in 2019-20, had only five seclusions and nine restraints in 2022-2023, according to the report.

The Neenah Joint School District reported 61 seclusions and 43 restraints in 2022-23, down from 119 seclusions and 90 restraints the previous year.

According to the Neenah school district's director of pupil services, Stephanie Phernetton, the district decreased seclusion and restraint incidents by developing and rolling out a new step-by-step guide for processing and reporting incidents of seclusion and restraint. Phernetton said the district also "fortified our training and communication" for special education staff and administrators.

Rebecca Loroff is a K-12 education reporter for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. She welcomes story tips and feedback. Contact her at 920-907-7801 or rloroff@gannett.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @RebeccaLoroff.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Seclusion and restraint in Wisconsin schools down 8% from 2021-22