Use of restraint and seclusion is lower in New Hampshire schools than it was before the pandemic, according to state data results from the 2021-2022 school year.
On Thursday, Department of Education investigator Richard Farrell presented the annual restraint and seclusion report to the New Hampshire State Board of Education.
The report shows the state has received 1,434 reports of restraint used in New Hampshire public schools during the 2021-2022 school year, compared to 2,860 reports in 2018-2019, the last school year that was not impacted by the pandemic. In 2019-2020, the year COVID-19 hit, the state received 1,834 restraint reports and in 2020-2021, the year of remote and hybrid learning, there were 692.
Seclusion instances have decreased from 1,223 in 2018-2019 to 683 in 2021-2022.
Restraint and seclusion are methods used when a student’s behavior poses imminent danger to their own self or to others. Restraint is when a school staff member physically immobilizes or restricts the movement of a student, either physically or with the use of a mechanical device such as a lap belt or by giving the student medication to immediately control their behavior. Seclusion is when a staff member places a student alone in a space that the student is barred from exiting.
Among last year’s restraints, three resulted in bodily harm to a student.
“All of those students were investigated by the Department of Education and we’re satisfied with the results and how they mediated the restraint in those instances,” Farrell said.
According to the report, Concord had 20 reports of restraint and 15 reports of seclusion at Christa McAuliffe School, eight restraints at Beaver Meadow School, three restraints at Rundlett Middle School and one restraint each at Abbot-Downing School and Concord High during the 2021-2022 school year. In nearby districts, Pittsfield Elementary School had 26 reports of restraint and 49 reports of seclusion, Franklin Middle School had 18 reports of restraint and Dunbarton Elementary had 13 reports of restraint and 5 reports of seclusion.
Farrell said the numbers tend to differ widely between school districts because individual districts have their own local policies on reporting restraint and seclusion, in addition to the state law’s definition. These separate policies sometimes leads to school districts to over-report physical contact that the state doesn’t consider to be restraint. For example, Dover Middle School reported 202 instances of restraint last year – the highest in the state – but Farrell said after an investigation it was found most of them weren’t actual restraints, as they were reporting all instances of physical contact. Dover has now re-examined its reporting policy.
Other times, the number of reports is high but are related to just a few students. For example, Farrell said, Atkinson Academy’s 48 restraint reports last year were all related to one former student.
The Department of Education collects restraint and seclusion data through school safety surveys and from the Department of Children, Youth and Families. Non-public schools report numbers too, though it is not required.
New Hampshire’s non-public schools generated 893 reports of restraint and 496 reports of seclusion this year compared to 3,005 restraints and 1,559 seclusions in 2018-2019.