By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov
Associate Commissioner Kevin Brown and Division Director David Cook present articles of incorporation for the Fund for Transforming Education in Kentucky during the Kentucky Board of Education meeting in Frankfort, Ky. Photo by Amy Wallot, Aug. 9, 2012
All Kentucky teachers will receive annual training on how to reduce the need for physical restraints or seclusion of students under a new policy adopted by the Kentucky Board of Education at its August meeting.
The new regulation calls for school personnel to be “trained to use an array of positive behavior interventions, strategies and supports to increase appropriate student behaviors, and decrease inappropriate or dangerous student behaviors.”
That training, which may be web-based, includes the proper use of positive reinforcement, crisis prevention and de-escalation strategies, as well as identification of a core team of staff trained specifically in the use of physical restraint or seclusion.
The policy also prohibits the use of restraint and seclusion for reasons such as punishment or to prevent property damage without the threat of harm to the student or others. Restraint and seclusion are to be used only under certain conditions, including when “less restrictive interventions have been ineffective in stopping the imminent danger of serious physical harm to self or others, except in the case of a clearly unavoidable emergency situation posing imminent danger of serious physical harm to self or others.” Continue Reading
