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A continuing subject that tracks developments in how schools enforce policies affecting students with disabilities, particularly regarding restraint, seclusion, and discriminatory practices.
Omaha Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Ray requested Tuesday that police officers assigned to district schools stop using electric shock gloves, a program he said he had only learned about the previous week.
Michigan schools physically restrain students or place them in seclusion thousands of times a year, according to a Bridge Michigan report published by the Associated Press. Many of the students affected are children with disabilities. The practices continue despite an almost 10-year-old state law that makes clear schools should only consider such measures in emergencies, with disagreement persisting over whether new legislation is needed.
The U.S. Education Department said Thursday it will no longer consider school policies that disproportionately harm one group of students as discriminatory unless the discrimination is intentional, rescinding a decades-long standard for civil rights enforcement.