Cedar Rapids district: seclusion banned, restraint limited under Department of Justice agreement; new SEBH staff and training added

Ryals Parker, chief of schools and behavior supports for the Cedar Rapids Community School District, outlined district actions tied to a Department of Justice agreement that he said was signed on 09/12/2022 and has a target end date of 06/30/2026 if the district meets the agreement's requirements.

Parker said the agreement has led the district to ban seclusion and restrict physical restraint to cases where “there's an imminent risk of serious bodily injury.” He described a multi-tiered staffing and training approach intended to prevent crises and improve responses when they occur.

The changes stem from five principal areas in the agreement, Parker said: three focused on crisis prevention (school safety teams, mandated de-escalation training, and increased functional behavior assessment supports) and two on crisis intervention (seclusion prohibition and tightened restraint use). “Seclusion is no longer allowed in the Cedar Rapids Community School District, and physical restraint is only used when there's an imminent risk of serious bodily injury,” Parker said.

Parker described operational steps the district has taken: each building now has a safety team and annual reviews of crisis-prevention protocols; de-escalation training that progresses from nonverbal to verbal and environmental interventions is mandatory in every building; and functional behavior assessments (FBAs) inform individualized behavior intervention plans (BIPs) that specify supports “before behavior, during a behavior, and after behavior.”

When a restraint occurs, Parker said, the building safety team conducts an immediate debrief, followed by a secondary debrief led by Director Tammy Beener that reviews student history and next steps. If a building records a restraint, Parker said the district-level team (including Parker and Beener) meets within the following month to review aggregate behavior data and recommend building- or district-level changes.

Parker said the district identified inconsistent data collection and role confusion as early problems and addressed them by tightening data-entry procedures and clarifying what staff may and may not do during crises. As a result of data review, the district concluded that transitions (pre-K to kindergarten, middle to high school) and lower elementary grades showed higher referral and behavioral incident rates.

To better match supports to student need, Parker said the district adopted a tiered model: universal Tier 1 supports for all students, Tier 2 interventions (about 15 percent of students) led by engagement specialists, and Tier 3 intensive supports (about 5 percent of students). He said the district created a new SEBH (social-emotional behavioral health) intervention specialist position focused on Tier 3 plans and fidelity of implementation, and also formed a district SEBH team that can push into buildings when needs exceed local capacity.

Parker described additional program changes: a restructured SIAP program at the middle- and high-school level with “more of a therapeutic approach, and less punitive,” expanded pull-out services, monthly coaching for SEBH staff from Grant Wood AEA and the district SEBH lead, and three days of initial targeted training and ongoing monthly PLC coaching groups for staff. “Our SEBH ... is getting specific monthly coaching from our Grant Wood AEA partners as well as our district SEBH lead,” he said.

On policy, Parker cited Board Policy 6 15 as prohibiting involuntary seclusion (he defined seclusion as the involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room or area in which the student is not free to leave or believes they are not free to leave). He also cited Board Policy 6 1 6 as defining use-of-restraint limits and post-restraint debriefing by a school counselor or licensed mental health practitioner. Parker emphasized that restraint “should not be used as a punishment or a way to enforce compliance or rules” and must end once the risk concludes.

An attendee asked Parker to repeat a slide for clarity; the attendee said, “That would be really great to maybe cover that one more time so that the slides match up with your words just a little bit more.” Parker then restated the seclusion and restraint policy points.

Parker closed by inviting questions via a QR code displayed in the presentation or by contacting him at the district office by email, and reiterated the DOJ agreement target date of 06/30/2026 if requirements are met.

The presentation described policy and practice changes, training, staffing and data-review processes but recorded no formal motions or votes in this transcript excerpt.