AversivesRestraintsSeclusion: Abuse of Children with Disabilities

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Aversives/Restraints/SeclusionAbuse of Children
with Disabilities
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Workshops

• Workshops on positive behavior supports for
• Schools/educators
• Family Support Organizations (FSOs) (supporting
  families of children youth with mental illness)
• Care Management Organizations (CMO)
• County Youth Services Commissions
• Staff of Department of Children Families

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Workshops

• Workshops on intersection of aversives/restraints,
  positive behavior supports, education, mental
  health developmental disability systems for
• Families
• Mental health agencies
• County Youth Services Commissions
• FSOs and CMOs
• Staff of Department of Children Families

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Technical Assistance

• Telephone TA to
• Families
• County Youth Services Commissions
• FSOs and CMOs working with families
• Office of the Child Advocate
• Department of Children Families

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Targeted TA

• In-person support through
• Community Education Project (Essex County urban
  communities)
• Mental Health Transition Project
• Catholic Family Community Services El Club de
  Padres
• SPAN Community Resource Centers
• Participation in Family Alliance to Stop Abuse
  Neglect

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Community Education Project (CEP)

• Families in Newark, East Orange, Orange,
  Irvington with limited literacy/education whose
  children/youth are involved across multiple
  agencies (education, mental health, juvenile
  justice)
• Funded through PTI
• Geraldine Moore, Coordinator

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Mental Health Transition Project

• Working with youth with mental health needs who
  are of transition age their families
• Alice Hunnicutt is Project Director
• 2 FTE staff (training, telephone in-person TA,
  primarily but not exclusively IEP meetings)
• Funded by NJ Bar Foundation/IOLTA

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El Club de Padres/CFCS

• 2 full-time staff
• Working exclusively with Spanish-speaking
  families, primarily in Paterson Passaic but
  also statewide
• In-person support at IEP meetings, mediations,
  due process, family court, other proceedings
• Rosita Kardashian, Director
• Funded through PTI Catholic Charities

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Community Resource Centers

• County-based sites staffed by trained volunteer
  SPAN Resource Parents
• Primarily provide telephone TA, but some SRPs
  provide in-person support, including to families
  with children victimized by aversives,
  restraints, or seclusion

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Public Policy Advocacy

• Founding member of NJ Alliance to Stop Abuse
  Neglect
• Advocacy to pass Matthews Law
• Advocacy to keep restraints, aversives, and
  seclusion out of state education code

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Public Policy Advocacy

• Collaboration with Office of the Child Advocate
  on reports advocacy around children exposed to
  institutional abuse
• Work with Office of the Public Advocate to
  investigate the extent of abuse in state
  institutions

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Aversives, Restraints Seclusion in NJ

• No state law prohibiting the use of aversives,
  restraints or seclusion in schools or state
  institutions
• No prohibition against aversives, restraints or
  seclusions in state education code
• Prohibition against corporal punishment in statute

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Concerns with State Institutions

• NJ has highest rate of out-of-district placement
  in segregated settings of any state in U.S. (10
  of all SWD)
• Segregated out-of-district schools have different
  monitoring rules

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Barriers

• NJ out-of-district placements refuse to admit SWD
  unless parents consent to use of aversives,
  restraints, seclusion

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Out of District Settings

• Parents are less likely to visit out-of-district
  placements on a regular basis
• No students without disabilities to be able to
  let parents of SWD know about abuse in
  out-of-district schools serving only students
  with disabilities

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Inclusion legislation increasing in-district
abuse

• Governors legislation funding in-district (not
  inclusive) programs for SWD, especially autism
• Districts creating segregated in-district
  programs using out-of-district schools as their
  models

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Advocacy in NJ

• Prohibition of corporal punishment in NJ public
  schools
• Requirement to consider positive behavior
  supports in IEPs for SWDs

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IEP Process

• Parents use letter denying consent for use of
  aversives, restraints or seclusion at IEP meeting
• Parents refuse to consent to IEP with such abuse
  in it

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Positive Behavior Supports

• SPAN disseminates our Positive Behavior Support
  Guide to parents, educators, district
  administrators for use in development of IEPs

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Research-Based Interventions

• Functional behavior assessment
• Development implementation of positive behavior
  support plan that includes
• Prevention
• Addressing skill deficits
• Teaching replacement behaviors
• Addressing skill performance deficits
• Improving the environment
• Reacting responding

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Parent Rights

• Refuse to consent to initial IEP with aversives,
  restraints or seclusion
• Withdraw consent for special education if
  district includes abuse in IEP
• Request mediation or due process hearing

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Role of Parent Centers

• Advocate for state laws state code prohibiting
  use of aversives seclusion, severely limiting
  use of restraints
• Provide individual advocacy for families