UPDATE: Justice Department finds FCPS violated federal law in restraining, secluding students with disabilities [Superintendent Terry Alban is former MCPS Administrator]

A Department of Justice investigation and subsequent settlement announced Wednesday found that Frederick County Public Schools “systematically and improperly” secluded and restrained students with disabilities in violation of federal law.

The investigation, opened in October 2020, “revealed thousands of incidents of seclusion and restraint in just two and a half school years,” according to a DOJ news release.

The department focused on school years 2017-18, 2018-19 and the first half of 2019-20. During that period, FCPS performed 7,253 seclusions and restraints on 125 students. Thirty-four individual students were secluded or restrained more than 50 times each.

“Although students with disabilities make up only 10.8% of students enrolled in the district, every single student the district secluded was a student with disabilities, as were 99% — all but one — of the students the district restrained,” the release said.

The district was found to be discriminating against students with disabilities in “pervasive noncompliance” with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In addition to analyzing system policy and data on behavioral interventions, DOJ investigators conducted interviews with teachers, administrators, support staff and guardians of four affected students...

https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/doj-fcps-violated-federal-law-in-restraining-secluding-students-with-disabilities/article_9c3ac4db-75fd-5042-b61d-45a3a41f9726.html