Pen.: "Advocates suspect widespread underreporting of restraint use"

Mar 24, 2025, Philly Burbs: How often are Bucks County schools restraining students? Why it's hard to know 

https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/2025/03/24/bucks-county-central-bucks-centennial-restraint-special-education-disabilities-abuse-education-pa/80051252007/ 

Daniel Hamilton’s 5-year-old son, who has autism, was grabbed and held down in a chair by his teacher last year, but the father wasn't told until two months later — after police opened an investigation.  

The same Davis Elementary School special education teacher pulled another 5-year-old student with autism across the classroom by his ears. His parents say the district didn't tell them about it for more than a week, and even then, not who was involved.

Both incidents, which occurred two days apart, should have been immediately reported to the parents —and the state — under Pennsylvania law, which restricts the use of restraints on students with disabilities.

State and federal laws also set notification and documentation guidelines that schools must follow whenever a student is restrained.

But it appears that the reporting of these incidents in Bucks County districts is largely left up to schools and their staffs, plus their internal policies and practices that may result in no reports or delayed reports to both parents and the state.

The agencies that collect the data rely on public school employees to self-report incidents. Recent local and state investigations, plus a review of available data, suggests that some fail to properly report incidents. 

The Centennial School District, for example, reported that no students were restrained in the 2011-12 school year, according to available data. But a 2024 police investigation at Davis Elementary suggests otherwise.

Investigators learned that special education teacher Dennis Cahill was suspended in 2012 for 15 days and he received "corrective measures" for “physically menacing and grabbing” students, but the state data has no report of the incident or the one police were investigating last year.

Questions have also been raised about how the Central Bucks School District reports restraint incidents.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education recently confirmed that children were repeatedly improperly restrained last year in an autism support classroom at CB's Jamison Elementary, leading to state and federal investigations.

The Central Bucks special education director says the confirmed incidents were not reported to her office. The parents of two students also allege they were not told their children were restrained, and no reports were made to the state.

The ability for parents and the public to find any information about restraint use is also limited because the state does not release the data for individual schools or districts. The data that is publicly available also lacks context including whether a restraint violated the law.

Not all incidents are violations, but all need to be reported.

National research suggests that children with disabilities are disproportionately subjected to restraint in schools — often in response to behaviors out of their control and due to their medical diagnosis — raising red flags with disability rights and education advocates. . . .

Pennsylvania and federal law requires education programs use positive interventions and techniques to address behavior that interferes with learning in the least intrusive method.  . . .

Regardless of the reason, all restraint incidents are to be documented and reported to parents, plus state and federal educational offices.

How often are children in Pennsylvania, Bucks County restrained at school?

The most recent Pennsylvania data shows a slight drop in the number of students with disabilities reported restrained statewide — 4,711 in the 2023-24 school year compared to 4,733 in the 2018-19 school year. 

The overall number of restraint incidents statewide also dropped from 21,257 incidents to 19,558, over the same years.

Those numbers suggest that each child was restrained an average of four times in a year. The data does not show frequency of mechanical, including harnesses and seat belts, versus hands-on restraint.

More than half of Pennsylvania students reported as restrained were in the first- to sixth- grades, according to the department.

Children with emotional disturbance and autism accounted for more than half those restrained, which is concerning since those conditions can impact a child's ability to communicate, McInerney said. . . .

The Pennsylvania Department of Education releases only statewide annual restraint data, which makes it impossible to know what is happening in individual schools. This news organization has pending Right-to-Know requests with the state, plus Centennial and Central Bucks districts, for restraint data reported in the 2021-22 through the current school year. 

The federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights publishes individual public school data on students with disabilities who are physically restrained, but it's only collected every other school year. The most recent data is four years old.

That federal data shows that most of the 13 Bucks County school districts reported at least one student was restrained between 2011-12 and 2020-21.

During that time period, a total of 138 Bucks County students with disabilities in 47 schools were reported restrained. The vast majority — 116, or 83% — were elementary age.

The federal data shows that nine Bucks County school districts reported that a combined total of 30 students were restrained in 2020-21 alone — the highest number of districts and students in the previous decade, according to the data.  . . .

Schools report restraint use through the Pennsylvania Restraint Information System Collection system four times a year, and to the federal government every other school year. 

Incidents must be reported to the state within 30 days or a district can be found in noncompliance, according to Pennsylvania Department of Education spokeswoman Erin James. 

The state recommends that any restraint resulting in serious injury be reported to the state within 48 hours.  

But when a parent should be notified of a restraint incident is less clear when there is no injury, at least under the law. 

The law requires schools hold an IEP meeting within 10 days of an incident, unless a parent waives it, but as far as parent notification, it only specifies that schools should “immediately notify as soon as practicable” and document those contact attempts.  

Even if restraint use is included in a student's IEP, the schools are required to notify parents and report the incident to the state system, McInerney said.

State education officials refused to provide the number of alleged improper restraint investigations it has opened in Bucks County schools since 2018-19.

Similarly, they did not provide info on outcomes of investigations or any corrective action ordered.

How do state education officials review and monitor restraint reports?

The state's Bureau of Special Education is responsible for reviewing restraint reports shortly after they are received to determine if additional training or technical assistance may be warranted, James said.

But the filing of a restraint report does not automatically trigger an investigation, she said. . . .

As part of the review process, schools submit a Facilitated Self-Report Assessment, which includes questions about restraint use.

But the state’s publicly available executive summaries of compliance assessments don't include restraint findings, corrective actions or other information. James didn't respond to an email sent March 12 about those summaries.

Disability rights advocates suspect widespread underreporting of restraint use. Here's why.

A comparison of Pennsylvania restraint data for the 2020-21 school year— the most recent where state and federal data was available — shows a wide discrepancy. 

The federal data shows 1,003 students with disabilities were reported physically restrained, while state data reported 2,382 students. Neither the Pennsylvania or U.S. departments of education responded to emails seeking an explanation. 

McInerney suggested that the disparity could involve how the agencies define a restraint.

“I don’t know why they would be so different,”  she added.

Civil and disability rights groups contend that school employees routinely ignore restraint reporting rules.

In 2019 the federal Government Accountability Office issued a report that recommended public school districts take action to address inaccuracies in reporting. 

The report noted that in the 2015-16 school year, 70% of U.S. school districts reported no restraint incidents, which the office found did not “accurately capture all incidents.” 

Three Bucks County school districts — Bensalem, Morrisville and Palisades — each reported to the DOE no use of restraints on children with disabilities in any schools between the 2011 and 2021. Experts say that's highly unlikely in the special needs student population, given the behaviors and challenges some of these students present with.

The Centennial School District, which has six schools, reported that only four students were restrained in that decade, all at Willow Dale Elementary in Warminster in the 2013-14 school year, according to federal DOE data. 

In her experience, McInerney said that few, or

no restraint reports, is "highly unusual."

“We should question a district that is educating thousands of students and reporting over multiple years they haven’t had one (restraint),” she said.