Louisiana Department of Education details policy changes from House Bill 684 on seclusion, restraint and classroom cameras

Department of Education staff outlined draft policy revisions and implementation steps to align the agency’s special education bulletins with House Bill 684, the year’s seclusion and restraint law, and described related changes on cameras in special education classrooms.

The presentation said the department will update Bulletin 1706 (seclusion and restraint) to revise the definition of physical restraint to mean “manual restraint techniques that involve physical force applied to restrict the movement of all or part of a person's body,” to state that holding a student for less than three consecutive minutes in an hour is not considered physical restraint, and to require that only personnel trained in appropriate techniques use physical restraint except in immediate emergencies where no trained staff are available.

The department told the panel it will add a definition of “sensory room” and clarify that sensory rooms, calming spaces and time‑out spaces are not seclusion. The draft also adds post‑incident steps: employees must notify the school administrator within an hour, the administrator must call the parent by the end of the day, a school nurse or health designee must visit the student by the end of the day, the special…