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New York to Revamp Special Education Punishment Plan

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John Hilldebrand and Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Newsday, November 29, 2006

State school officials are moving toward sweeping new restrictions on the use of shock therapy and detention rooms for special-education students, in response to complaints by some Long Island parents that such disciplinary techniques were being abused.

After more than six months' debate, state school officials expect approval early next year of comprehensive new regulations covering the controversial disciplinary methods. Proposed rules were posted earlier this month for public review and are to be taken up in January by the state Board of Regents.

Schools violating the rules would risk losing their share of $650 million in federal special-education money distributed annually statewide.

Temporary restrictions on shock therapy now in place are already sharply reducing the number of students referred for such treatments, Albany officials report. Those restrictions would become permanent under the latest proposal. Meanwhile, the Nassau Board of Cooperative Educational Services, which had been criticized for its use of time-out rooms, welcomed the proposed regulations.

Supporters say the tighter restrictions underline their determination to protect vulnerable students from disciplinary measures that could prove physically and emotionally damaging and offend public sensibilities.

"They shocked me at first," said one supporter, Roger Tilles of Great Neck, the Island's representative on the Regents board. He added that some "aversive" therapies reminded him initially of those from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", a 1960s novel and subsequent film about abuse of mental patients. After review, Tilles said he realized the issues were complicated, but that such therapy should only be applied case-by-case.

Tilles credited a series of Newsday reports for heightening public awareness of the potential for abuses of disciplinary techniques used by some schools. The articles, appearing over the past year, focused on two teenage students from the Island who have indicated they were traumatized by their experiences.

One student, from Freeport, was subjected to repeated electric shocks (at his Massachusetts school, approved to treat New York students, youths wore remotely-activated units in backpacks linked to electrodes attached to their limbs). The other student, from Hicksville, spent multiple detentions in a small, padded "time out" cubicle at a special BOCES school in Wantagh.

Under the new rules, time limits must be set for children placed in time-out rooms, and schools using such rooms would be required to keep records showing whether detentions actually serve their intended goal of helping disruptive students calm down and return to classes.

Also, it will be much more difficult for any child to be approved for mild shock therapy. A new panel of experts meets to review each case. So far, the panel -- made up of a rotation of experts -- has either rejected or sought more information on all but one or two of about 20 applications.

Finally, a list of "aversive" therapies that could cause pain or discomfort also would be banned, including hitting, pinching or unreasonable delays in meals.

Even so, some student advocates feel the new rules won't go far enough. One nonprofit group, Legal Services of Central New York, Inc., objects to the fact that special-education centers such as those operated by regional BOCES on Long Island still won't be required to report their use of time-out rooms to Albany.

"They continue to let the fox guard the henhouse," said Beth Wallbridge, an advocacy specialist for the Syracuse-based group that provides legal representation for the disabled.

William Schafer of Hicksville, the father of a teenager confined in a 5 by 6-foot "time out" room, said he takes some satisfaction in the fact that his son Billy's case had helped prompt state action, but he believes the proposed regulations don't go far enough in monitoring what goes on in schools.

"Any step forward that the Regents board takes shows me that they recognize the problem," the father said.

But some parents contend that the state has gone too far in trying to restrict therapies that sometimes work when other methods fail. In September, a New York parents' group won a federal court order reinstating electric skin-shock treatments for 45 students at the private Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Mass., after Regents moved to temporarily limit such treatments.

Permanent rules now under consideration would continue allowing the shocks, which center officials liken to bee stings. But no additional students would be approved for such treatment after June 30, 2009.

Rebecca Cort, a deputy state education commissioner in charge of special education, voiced hope that in five years, New York will have the ability to provide more nonaversive treatment within the state, eliminating the need to send students out-of-state.

 

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