Roughly 7,000 times a year children and teenagers in Rhode Island public schools and publicly-funded education programs are physically restrained during school, state data shows.
A restraint can range from holding a student's arms down to prevent them from hitting someone, to pinning the youth face-down on the floor in what's known as a "prone" restraint.
Prone restraints -- among the riskiest, experts say, because of the potential for asphyxiation -- are already prohibited in state-licensed child care programs, group homes for children and adolescents, as well as in programs for adults with developmental disabilities or psychiatric conditions.
Now, Legislation (H-6088 and S-2013) pending in the General Assembly would ban the use of the prone restraint statewide, including in public schools. (Read RIDE's regulations on restraints here.)