Jan 13, 2020, New Mexico Political Report: Lujan Grisham on seclusion and restraint in Albuquerque schools: ‘It’s appalling’ https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2020/01/13/lujan-grisham-on-seclusion-and-restraint-in-albuquerque-schools-its-appalling/ Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is two weeks away from her second legislative session, and she’s got a lot more on her mind than passing a budget…. She also expressed outrage over the use of physical restraint in New Mexico’s schools. “The damage that can be done by using terrible efforts to control a child are outrageous,” Lujan Grisham said. She was responding to Searchlight’s recent investigations into the use of physical restraint by staff in the Albuquerque Public Schools. State law requires that school staff notify parents when they restrain or seclude a child. But the state’s largest district is breaking that law — repeatedly — and escaping consequences, Searchlight found. … It was appalling for me to find out — as we are putting together our education cabinet and priorities — that we don’t require the districts to tell us about behavior issues that require seclusion or restraint. It’s appalling. We’re going to require districts to provide us data about [restraint and seclusion], so when you ask me about it, you’re going to have real meaningful information to compare schools and strategies — and so are we. We can’t hold people accountable if we don’t know what they’re doing. … We have a law on the books. When I have the data, we have to provide a meaningful vehicle for parents to feel like there’s accountability. Why has there been no disciplinary action taken against APS? Well, the issue is, that I don’t know that that stuff has risen to us in that way….

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