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Students with disabilities have the same right as students without disabilities to receive a free and appropriate public education that promotes their safety and welfare while they learn. This means they have the right to receive an education where they are not:
- injured through dangerous restraints,
- sent home early via informal suspensions, or
- taught by educators who are ineligible to teach in Texas schools. ?
Read on for more information about these issues and the Governor?s Committee on People with Disabilities? (GCPD) recommendations for solving them.
Policy Recommendations to the 88th Legislature to Improve Educational Outcomes for Students with Disabilities
Prone and Supine Restraints
Physical restraints are intended to be a last resort when responding to a student?s behavior. They are meant to be used to protect the student when there is risk of imminent harm to the student or others. However, we are seeing more and more school staff rely on these restraints when a student is having a behavior issue. Physical restraints that bring a student to the ground, called prone and supine restraints, restrict breathing and can cause serious bodily injury and death. GCPD recommends amending Title 19 Texas Administrative Code ?89.1053 to ban prone and supine restraints.
The Texas Legislature is currently considering HB 133 and SB 1610, relating to prohibiting the use of certain restraints on students enrolled in public schools who receive special education services.
Informal, Undocumented Suspensions, Early Pickups, or Shortened School Days for Students with Disabilities
When a school does not know how to support a child with a disability because of behavior or other issues, the school will often call the parents and request or encourage the parents to pick up their child. These are not documented as official out-of-school suspensions, but they exclude students from the classroom and from other important periods of academic and social interaction with teachers and peers. These early pickups disproportionately impact students with disabilities. See page 26 of GCPD?s Biennial Report for more details. GCPD recommends amending Texas Education Code Sec. 25.0875 to clarify the prohibited use of informal, undocumented suspensions and certain releases of students with disabilities to parents after school-initiated communication.
The Texas Legislature is currently considering HB 773, relating to prohibiting certain releases of a student to the student's parent after school-initiated communication by a school district or open-enrollment charter school.
Cameras in Classrooms
In 2015, the Texas Legislature expanded protection for students with disabilities in public schools by allowing video surveillance in certain special education classrooms. Video recordings have helped to document and verify inappropriate restraints and staff abuse of students with disabilities. Reform and expansion of the cameras in classrooms state law will further empower parents and protect students with disabilities. Improvements in the law are needed because harmful restraints continue to occur and arrests of school employees for attacks and injury of students with disabilities are increasing. GCPD recommends reforming and expanding the use of cameras in classrooms to further empower parents and protect students with disabilities to address harmful restraints and reduce injury of students with disabilities.
The Texas Legislature is currently considering HB 2234, relating to certain policies and procedures for the placement and use of video cameras in certain classrooms including classrooms that provide special education services and SB 776, relating to the required period of retention of video surveillance recordings of special education settings.
Do-Not-Hire Registry
In 2019, the Texas Legislature created the Do-Not-Hire Registry, an official state list of individuals who are ineligible for employment in Texas schools. The purpose of the Registry is to protect the safety and welfare of all students by preventing school districts from hiring teachers and staff after another district terminated them for abusing a student. GCPD recommends improvements to the Registry because the use of abusive restraints, attacks, and injuries to students with disabilities continue to occur.
The Texas Legislature is currently considering HB 4978, related to reports of certain misconduct committed by an employee of a public school, regional education service center, or shared services arrangement and a study by the Texas Education Agency regarding employee misconduct reporting mechanisms.
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