The latest state data on seclusion and restraints in New Hampshire schools paints a bleak picture: districts reported restraining children nearly 2,650 times last year and secluding them just over 2,011 times.
But child and education advocates say those numbers, which are published annually by the Department of Education, fail to give a meaningful or accurate account of schools' use of restraints and seclusions. And given those reporting gaps, the state’s top watchdog for child welfare is pushing for a stronger role in monitoring those practices.
“There is no oversight in this area,” said the state’s child advocate, Cassandra Sanchez. “There is [a] lack of monitoring. If no one is reviewing these reports and asking questions, is no one following up to require compliance by all school districts.”
As it stands, public and private schools must document their use of restraints and seclusions and share that information with parents, but they are not required to provide it to the department. They must only report how often they used both practices.
The department’s report for public and private schools does not indicate how many students were restrained or secluded or how often either involved children receiving special education services, a population that tends to be overrepresented in those incidents, according to disability rights advocates.
Nor do the reports include analysis of why seclusions jumped in public schools from 720 in the 2022-2023 school to 1,654 last year. And, most schools reported no restraints or seclusions during the last four years, including in districts where parents say their child was subject to one or the other.
A proposed bill for next year would give the Office of the Child Advocate office oversight of restraint and seclusion in schools. Currently, the office has the authority to investigate only restraints and seclusions of students involved with state services, including students placed in residential settings.
Sanchez used that authority last year to pull two New Hampshire boys from a Tennessee facility over concerns about the staffs’ use of restraints and seclusion. One boy suffered rug burns to his face while being restrained face-down on the floor, according to her report.
That level of detail is needed, advocates said, to assess whether New Hampshire schools are using restraints and seclusions properly and only when necessary. The public won’t find that information in the annual reports released by the state. Only the number of reports is shown.
What the numbers say, and don’t say
Under state law, a child can be restrained only to ensure “the immediate physical safety of persons when there is a substantial and imminent risk of serious bodily harm to the child or others.” Similar limits apply to the use of seclusion.
Among public schools, Berlin Elementary School, which has 416 students, reported the highest number of restraints at 96. Nashua’s Broad Street Elementary School, which has 263 students, was next with 59, followed by Hanover Street School in Lebanon, population 306, with 54 restraint reports.
Those schools also reported among the higher number of seclusions, with the elementary school in Nashua at the top with 166. Officials in those districts did not respond to requests for comment as of Wednesday afternoon.
Among private schools, Gammon Academy at Zachary Road in Manchester, stood out with 517 restraints but no seclusions among its 96 students. The school, operated by Easterseals New Hampshire, serves children with behavioral, developmental, and intellectual conditions.
Michele Talwani, a spokesperson for Easterseals New Hampshire, said their students come to them when they can no longer stay in other residential education placements largely due to physical aggression.
“Gammon Academy emphasizes de-escalation and trauma-informed care, only using restraints as a last resort when a child is at risk of hurting themselves or others,” she said in an email. “We do not use seclusion as a behavioral strategy at Gammon Academy.”
Talwani said the administration and clinical teams meet daily to review and debrief any restraints from the prior day, with the goal of preventing future restraints.
“We make a long-term commitment to the children served in our residential education program,” she said. “We develop comprehensive treatment plans to help them, over time, develop skills to use as alternatives to aggression.”
Sen. Debra Altschiller, a Stratham Democrat, said New Hampshire has made strides in overseeing the use of restraints and seclusions. She helped lead legislative efforts last year to prohibit face-down restraints and to require all schools to use the same form to report their use of restraints and seclusions.
Altschiller supports giving the Office of the Child Advocate oversight authority of these incidents.
“This is clearly the next step in what we need to do to support her work and collect real, useful information,” Altschiller said, “so that we can create policies so that it’s not just a free-for-all depending on which town line you cross.”
The Disability Rights Center - NH, an organization that favors eliminating the use of restraints , is also on board. Executive Director Stephanie Patrick said they’re concerned with a lack of follow up on the numbers. “The data is valuable in and of itself, but it's even more valuable if there's an organization that's looking at it and trying to figure out (if) are there certain school systems or certain age children or… other things where there's where more advocacy might be needed, where the numbers are not fitting in with the expectation,” Patrick said.
More changes on the table
Other potential changes to the laws around restraint and seclusion are also in store at the State House next year.
A House committee recently recommended lawmakers try again to pass a bill that would require schools to audio and video record restraints and seclusions. That legislation was sent to interim study this year.
A bill that is being drafted now would create a pilot program for schools interested in learning alternatives to restraint and seclusion. Sanchez, who is working with lawmakers on that bill too, said she’s worried that schools think the use of seclusion has less impact on a child than a restraint.
“It’s just as traumatic for children to be as secluded away from their peers,” she said.
Teaching educators how to avoid restraints and seclusions is critical, Patrick said. Take a situation where a child is overwhelmed and puts their head on the desk as a coping strategy, refusing to move. Patrick said when this happened at one local school, officials [kept trying to get the child to move, and eventually resorted to restraint?].
It’s important to look at other ways to intervene in a child’s behavior, she said, to avoid resorting to restraint and seclusion.
“The mistake is to look at just the incident where the adult was making the decision about whether a restraint was needed or not,” she said. “I think you have to look at the whole picture.”
