Restrictive Procedure Plan

In accordance with Minn. Stat. §§ 125A.094 and 125A.0942 as amended effective 7/1/13, every school district is required to develop and make publicly accessible in an electronic format on a school or district website or make a paper copy available upon request a plan that discloses its use of restrictive procedures with special education students. The plan must list the restrictive procedures that the school district intends to use; describe how the school district will implement a range of positive behavior strategies and provide links to mental health services, describe how the school district will monitor and review the use of restrictive procedures, including post-use debriefings and convening an oversight committee to undertake a quarterly review of the use of restrictive procedures based on patterns or problems indicated by similarities in the time of day, day of the week, duration of the use of a procedure, the individuals involved, or other factors associated with the use of restrictive procedures, the number of times a restrictive procedures is used school-wide and for individual children the number and types of injuries, if any, resulting from the use of restrictive procedures, whether restrictive procedures are used in nonemergency situations, the need for additional staff training, and proposed actions to minimize the use of restrictive procedures; and includes a written description and documentation of the training any staff members who will be using restrictive procedures have completed to show they have the skills set out in Minn. Stat. § 125A.0942, subd. 5.

Belle Plaine Public Schools uses restrictive procedures only in emergency situations. “Emergency” means a situation where immediate intervention is needed to protect the student or other individuals from physical injury or to prevent serious property damage; and less intrusive or non-physical interventions would not be effective; and a behavior intervention plan has been developed for the student and the student has failed to respond to those reinforcement techniques. “Emergency” does not mean circumstances such as: a child who does not respond to a task or request and instead places his or her head on a desk or hides under a desk or table; a child who does not respond to a staff person’s request unless failing to respond would result in physical injury to the child or other individual; or an emergency incident has already occurred and no threat of physical injury currently exists. Restrictive procedures must not be used to punish or otherwise discipline a child.

Individual Education Plans

The team may include a plan for using restrictive procedures in the IEP but may only use the procedures in situations that constitute an emergency. The IEP (Individual Education Plan) and/or BIP (Behavior Intervention Plan) must indicate how the parent wants to be notified when a restrictive procedure is used. The team is expected to debrief after every restrictive procedure and complete the “Restrictive Procedure Reporting Form” (Appendix A) & “Restrictive Procedure Staff Debrief Form” (Appendix B).

The Belle Plaine School District intends to use the following restrictive procedures:

The restrictive procedure that Belle Plaine may use in an emergency situation is physical holding. Physical holding is a physical intervention intended to hold a student immobile or limit a student’s movement, where body contact is the only source of physical restraint, and where immobilization is used to effectively gain control of a student in order to protect a student or other individual from physical injury.
The physical holding must: (1) be the least intrusive intervention that effectively responds to the emergency; (2) not be used to discipline a noncompliant student; (3) end when the threat of harm ends and the staff determines the child can safely return to the classroom or activity; (4) be observed directly by staff while the physical holding is being used; and (5) be documented as soon as possible after the incident concludes by the person who implemented the physical hold or oversaw the hold.
The term physical holding does not mean physical contact that: (1) Helps a child respond or complete a task; (2) assists a child without restricting the child’s movement; (3) is needed to administer an authorized health-related service or procedure; (4) is needed to physically escort a child when the child does not resist or the child’s resistance is minimal.
The school district intends to use the following types of physical holding (1)
Those authorized and certified to use restrictive procedures include: building administration, licensed school social workers & school psychologists, licensed special education teachers, other certified/registered educational professionals, special education paraprofessionals, who have been trained, may support licensed staff under their direction.
Reasonable force is permitted by school staff when necessary to correct or restrain a student in order to prevent bodily harm or death to self or others.

B. Restrictive Procedures Not Used: Belle Plaine does not use the restrictive procedures:

Seclusion – confining a student alone in a room from which egress is barred, including by an adult locking or closing the door in the room or preventing the student from leaving the room. Removing a student from an activity to a location where the student cannot participate in or observe the activity is not seclusion if the student is not confined alone in a room from which egress is barred.
Prone Restraint – placing a student in a face down position.

C. Mechanical Restraint: Physical holding does not include the application of mechanical restraints for bus transportation, sensory needs, or medical needs as these procedures are documented in the student’s Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) or Individual Education Program (IEP).

II. The school district will implement a range of positive behavior strategies and provide links to mental health services.

Positive behavioral interventions and supports means interventions and strategies to improve the school environment and teach children the skills to behave appropriately.
The school district implements the following positive behavior strategies: Responsive Classroom; Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS); Mental Health Week (Jr/Sr High); daily advisories (Jr/Sr High)
The school district provides the following links to mental health services: (1)

III. The school district will provide training on de-escalation techniques

The school district provides the following training on using positive behavior interventions: Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Prevention training; social/emotional/behavioral training for staff; PBIS
The school district provides the following training on accommodating, modifying, and adapting curricula, materials, and strategies to appropriately meet the needs of individual students and ensure adequate progress toward the state’s graduation standards: Differentiation training (Tier 1, 2, and 3 interventions); Professional Learning Communities: Grading for Learning; Grade Level Flexing.

IV. The school district will monitor and review the use of restrictive procedures in the following manner

Documentation

Every time a physical holding is used, the staff person who implements or oversees the holding documents, as soon as possible (within 1 working day), after the incident concludes, the following information:
1. Emergency factors leading to the use of restrictive procedures including why a less restrictive measure failed or deemed inappropriate or impractical
2. Restrictive procedure used in the emergency
3. Time spent using restrictive procedure including a brief record of the child’s behavioral and physical status
4. Parent/Guardian notification:
  1. The School District shall make reasonable efforts to notify the parent on the same day when a restrictive procedure is used. If the school is unable to provide same-day notice, notice will be sent within 2 days by written or electronic means or as otherwise indicated by the parent. If used twice in 30 days or when a pattern emerges, and not included in the student’s IEP or BIP, the district must hold a meeting of the team to conduct a review of the Functional Behavior Assessment data and consider developing or revising the behavioral interventions and supports.

2. See Appendix A “Restrictive Procedure Reporting Form”

Post-use debriefings, consistent with documentation requirements:

Each time physical holdings used, the staff person who implement or oversaw the physical holding shall conduct a post-use debriefing with the Director of Support Services, within 2 working days after the incident concludes.
The post-use debriefing will review the following requirements to ensure that the physical holding was used appropriately.
1. Names of staff attending the debrief
2. Description of the incident
3. Description of the procedure used to return the child to his/her routine activities, educational setting, intervention, and/or site determined by the team, BIP, and/or administration

3. See Appendix B “Restrictive Procedure Debriefing Form”

Oversight committee: The District will convene an oversight committee, which may include the following individuals:

o Special Services Director,

o Superintendent or his/her designee,

o Special Education Department Lead or assigned school representative,

o School Psychologist,

o School Social Worker,

o School Nurse,

o School Site Representative(s), and/or

o Building Principal

2. The school district’s oversight committee will meet once a month during Child Study

3. The school district’s oversight committee will review the following: (1) for patterns or problems indicated by similarities in the time of day, day of the week, duration of the use of a procedure, the individuals involved, or other factors associated with the use of restrictive procedures (2) at the number of times a restrictive procedure is used school-wide and for individual children; (3) at the number and types of injuries, if any, resulting from the use of restrictive procedures; (4) at whether restrictive procedures are used in nonemergency situations; (5) at whether additional staff training on behavior interventions and restrictive procedures is needed; and (5) at proposed actions to minimize the use of restrictive procedures.

4. The District administration will maintain an ongoing record of all reported uses of restrictive procedures.

V. The school district staff who use restrictive procedures, including paraprofessionals, received training in the following skills and knowledge areas:

VI. The school district will never use the following prohibited procedures on a child:

Engaging in conduct prohibited under section 121A.58 (corporal punishment);
Requiring a child to assume and maintain a specified physical position, activity, or posture that induces physical pain
Totally or partially restricting a child’s senses as punishment
Presenting an intense sound, light, or other sensory stimuli using smell, taste, substance, or spray as punishment;
Denying or restricting a child’s access to equipment and devices such as walkers, wheelchairs, hearing aids, and communication boards that facilitate the child’s functioning, except when temporarily removing the equipment or device is needed to prevent further injury to the child or others or serious damage to the equipment or device, in which case the equipment or device shall be returned to the child as soon as possible;
Interacting with a child in a manner that constitutes sexual abuse, neglect, or physical abuse under section 626.566 (reporting of maltreatment of minors);
Withholding regularly scheduled meals or water;
Denying access to bathroom facilities; and
Physical holding that restricts or impairs a child's ability to breath, restricts or impairs a child’s ability to communicate distress, places pressure or weight on a child's head, throat, neck, chest, lungs, sternum, diaphragm, back, or abdomen, or results in straddling a child’s torso.