Today, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4247, the
Keeping All Students Safe Act. This legislation establishes new federal requirements and limitations for the use of seclusion or restraints in schools and comes in response to a 2009 Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis of incidents in which students suffered injury or death as a result of abuse of these practices. While there is widespread agreement that states should provide training and guidelines to help school personnel safely use these techniques to protect student safety, the bill has drawn opposition from key school groups for being premature and overly broad.
“There is no doubt that the safety and security of our nation’s students must be priority number one for parents, teachers, and school administrators,” said Rep. John Kline (R-MN), the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee. “However, this legislation offers a one-size-fits-all federal solution that may actually make it more difficult for teachers and school leaders to keep our classrooms safe. With this bill, Congress is taking steps to prematurely regulate, at the federal level, issues that have not been fully investigated or reviewed. This is not a prudent course of action.”
Federal regulations under H.R. 4247 would supersede action already taken by 46 states to enact or begin development of seclusion and restraint policies in public schools and extend that regulatory authority to private schools as well. By creating a federal framework for regulating these practices, rather than relying on states and local schools to take the lead, the legislation will result in a two year delay before safeguards are fully implemented. This may cause local administrators to suspend their current efforts and wait for government action.
“It would do a disservice to the safety of our children and their teachers for Congress to hastily take action that either undercuts existing efforts at the local level or delays implementation of state-based reforms. While ignoring the warnings reported by the GAO is not an option, taking action before we have all the facts is equally problematic,” said Kline. “There are dangers to federal overreach, including this bill’s abandonment of longstanding precedent that prevents federal education mandates from being imposed on private schools.”
NOTE: Key education groups have come out in opposition to H.R. 4247, including the American Association of School Administrators, the Council for American Private Education, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, among others.
# # #
