POLICY LETTER: January 26, 2010 to National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities representative Nancy R. Weiss

January 26, 2010Ms. Nancy R. WeissNational Leadership Consortium on Developmental DisabilitiesCenter for Disabilities StudiesUniversity of Delaware461 Wyoming RoadNewark, Delaware 19716Dear Ms. Weiss:Thank you for your September 30, 2009, letter and October 1, 2009, electronic mail inquiry on behalf of 28 disability organizations in which you articulated a Call to Action to Eliminate the Use of Aversive Procedures and Other Inhumane Practices. I appreciate the concerns raised in your letter and am pleased to respond.In your letter you asked that the U.S. Department of Education (Department) take regulatory action to put an end to the use of electric shock, other painful and aversive procedures, seclusion, unnecessary restraint, and food deprivation all inhumane and unnecessary methods of behavior modification used in some schools and residential facilities for children and adults with disabilities in the United States. Like you, I am very concerned that we do all we can to help ensure that schools are places of safety for all our children, and that the use of seclusion and restraint be very limited. No child should be subjected to the abusive or potentially deadly use of seclusion or restraint in a school. On July 31, 2009, I issued a letter to all Chief State School Officers asking them to develop or review and, if appropriate, revise their State policies and guidelines to ensure that every student in every school is safe and protected from being unnecessarily or inappropriately restrained or secluded. A copy of my letter is enclosed, for your information, and also is available at HYPERLINK "http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/secletter/090731.html"http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/secletter/090731.html. To follow up on the letter, the Department's regional Comprehensive Centers recently collected States' policies and guidelines regarding the use of seclusion and restraints, and worked with the States to help ensure that the Centers had accurate information. We expect to post these policies and guidelines on the Department's Web site to assist in the sharing of information that will help protect our students. Additionally, the Department proposed in the Federal Register on September 11, 2009, changes to the school year 2009-2010 Civil Rights Data Collection that would require that the collection (1) disaggregate by race/ethnicity, sex, limited English proficient status, and disability status the total number of students subjected to restraint or seclusion; and (2) collect the total number of times that restraint or seclusion was applied. The Federal Register notice begins the review and approval process for this proposed data collection. The public was invited to submit comments on these and other proposed changes by November 10, 2009. As a part of the normal review process, a second round of public comment began with a Federal Register notiOn December 9, 2009, Congressman George Miller, Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, and Senator Christopher Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families, introduced the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act, H.R. 4247 and S. 2860. Prior to introduction of this legislation, I sent Chairman Miller, Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers, and Senator Dodd a list of principles that the Department believes would be useful for Congress to consider in the context of any legislation on this issue. Copies of my letters are enclosed, for your information, and may be viewed at HYPERLINK "http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/secletter/091211.html"http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/secletter/091211.html. I am committed to ensuring that schools foster learning in a safe environment for all of our children, teachers, and others. Thank you for your interest in this important issue.Sincerely,/s/Arne DuncanEnclosuresPage 2 Ms. Nancy R. Weiss