Indiana teachers put students in isolation with little oversight; schools are not audited or held accountable

Elementary school isolation room in Warsaw,
pop. 15,000, in northern Indiana (WFYI)

Teachers in Indiana repeatedly put an 11-year-old boy in forced isolation, despite the child having epilepsy and being on the autism spectrum, reports Lee V. Gaines of WFYI in Indianapolis in the first of two reports. This child isn't alone in his experience. "Students across the state are secluded and restrained thousands of times each year, according to data provided by the Indiana Department of Education. . . . Indiana lawmakers approved legislation a decade ago that was intended to regulate and curb the use of restraint and seclusion in schools. . . . The law states that these interventions should be used rarely and only as a last resort in situations where the safety of students or others is threatened. . . . But a lack of oversight from the Indiana Department of Education means it's unclear whether the law has had its intended effect."

Indiana "defines seclusion as the confinement of a student alone in a room or an area from which they're physically prevented from leaving. Physical restraint is defined as physical contact between a school employee and student that involves the use of a manual hold to restrict freedom of movement of all or part of a student's body," Gaines explains. "The DOE collects district-reported data on the number of incidents of seclusion and restraint in schools. . . . But a WFYI investigation — based on public records, court documents, internal school logs, audio recordings of state-level meetings, and parent interviews — found that some schools do not accurately report incidents of restraint and seclusion to the state."

In addition to haphazard reporting by some schools, the DOE is required to conduct "an annual audit of seclusion and restraint data reported to the agency by school districts, according to a rule that took effect in 2018," Gaines writes. "But the department has no record of an audit ever being done for the previous four school years, according to a spokesperson for the agency, Christina Molinari. . . . Molinari said that the DOE does not have the power to make schools follow these plans." In addition to individual school plans, in 2013, the state established "The Indiana Commission on Seclusion and Restraint, which was tasked with drafting rules and creating a model plan that details how schools should report and use these interventions. . . . Two commission members say the body has lost focus." And once again, "The commission has no enforcement power to ensure districts are accurately reporting incidents and following their restraint and seclusion plans." The end result is "state requirements and no enforcement."