Physical Restraint, Time Out and Isolated Time Out Reduction Plan
1. The oversight team consists of the school superintendent (Dr. Brad Landgraf), principal (Sandi Pegg), assistant principal (Ed Emge), school psychologist (Dr. Christine Mitchell-Endsley), social worker (Jen Missey and Sandi Price), self-contained special education teachers (Jessica Veath, Alexa Diehl, Courtney Keeley, and Kelli Marlin), and paraprofessional (Kristin Scharf).
2. Some students served within the Millstadt School District #160 instructional programs engage in behaviors that risk the safety and security of themselves or others. Students served in the self-contained special education instructional programs may require intensive educational and therapeutic programming outside of the regular education classrooms to effectively meet their behavioral, social, communicative, and academic needs. These self-contained programs in Millstadt District #160 employ proactive strategies embedded within the programming, such as restorative practices, verbal/visual de-escalation, sensory integration, and trauma informed practices to increase prosocial behaviors and decrease negative behaviors that impede learning and risk the safety and security of students and others.
3. According to the Millstadt School District #160 Student Handbook: Isolated time out, time out, and physical restraint shall only be used if the student’s behavior presents an imminent danger of serious physical harm to the student and others, and other less restrictive and intrusive measures were tried and proven ineffective in stopping it. The District may not use isolated time out, time out, and physical restraint as discipline or punishment, convenience for staff, retaliation, a substitute for appropriate educational or behavioral support, a routine safety matter, or to prevent property damage in the absence of imminent danger of serious physical harm to the student or others. Any use of isolated time out, time out, and physical restraint by any staff member shall comply with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) rules, Section 1.285, “Requirements of the Use of Isolate Time Out, Time Out, and Physical Restraint.”
4. RTO Reduction Goal: The objective shall be a 25 percent reduction in the use of physical restraint/time out/isolated time out over a12-month period for students experiencing five-plus instances in a 30-day period. Progress shall be measured by the reduction of overall number of RTO incidents or intervention and the reduction in the total number of students subjected to RTO.
5. The RTO oversight team will be available to meet with staff members to develop individualized student plans to assist with the reduction and prevention of RTO.
6. The school district administration will make appropriate school personnel aware of any history the student has with physical or sexual abuse and relevant medical mental health information.
7. The Millstadt School District and the restraint oversight committee supports a vision of classrooms and educators that provide: positive behavioral interventions and support rather than physical restraint, time out, and isolated time out; effective ways to de-escalate situations to avoid RTO; crisis intervention techniques that use alternatives to RTO; use of debriefing meetings to reassess what occurred and why it occurred and to think through ways to prevent the use of RTO in the future.
8. This RTO Reduction Plan will be made available to parents via the school district website and upon request. Information will be provided to individual parents when Restraint and Time Out are necessary.
9. The restraint oversight committee will meet as necessary to modify this plan, the process and to assess/satisfy the goals of this plan.