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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Positive Behavior Intervention – Help for WI Teachers, Parents, and Students

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Thursday, February 18, 2010   

MADISON, Wis. - Wisconsin parents and teachers have been contacting disability rights groups for years about restraining or secluding children in schools. Nineteen states have enacted laws or regulations to govern the use of restraint and seclusion. A bill is now under consideration that would require Wisconsin schools to use the Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) method.

Many teachers say they feel inadequately trained to restrain students. Research shows that encouraging schools to use PBIS can prevent the need to restrain or seclude students. A public hearing on the bill, SB 468, will be held at 10 a.m. today in room 412E of the State Capitol.

Sheila Thornton, who runs a day-care center in Toma, is the mother of four school-age boys. She says the bill would help teachers learn techniques that would benefit both parents and students.

"Parents need to know that the teachers who are teaching their children are in a classroom of 20 kids, if not more."

The bill would allow use of physical restraint only under limited circumstances, like breaking up a fight, and would strictly prohibit seclusion in a locked room. Any area used for seclusion would have to meet minimum requirements, to protect the child's safety.

Kids do not misbehave just to misbehave, Thornton says. Teachers need to see they have options, she adds, and PBIS helps.

"We need to figure out why that child is behaving the way they're behaving, and how we can help. Often, there are alternatives to help these children."

Thornton is a licensed day-care operator and has a class of eight children every day. She says she's aware of more alternative methods than her children's public school teachers are, and she has higher standards.

"I have to uphold certain responsibilities as an early childhood provider, yet our school systems don't?"

The bill would require schools to train staff and keep records on restraint and seclusion, and would require parents of students with behavioral disabilities to consent to the use of certain methods of restraint and seclusion before they are used on their child.

More information is available from Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities at www.wi-bpdd.org.



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