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Board committees adopt revisions to special-education and discipline policies, add seclusion and sensory-room definitions
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Summary
Committees voted to revise the district’s IDDF policy on students with exceptionalities to add crisis intervention, clarify seclusion and sensory rooms and rewrite physical restraint definitions; they also waived waiting periods to adopt JD (discipline) and JVA (corporal punishment) changes tied to recent state acts.
Beauregard Parish policy committee on Nov. 10 approved a package of policy revisions affecting students with exceptionalities and discipline.
A policy presenter reviewed revisions to file IDDF (education of students with exceptionalities) that the committee said reflect changes in state law. The update adds crisis intervention and positive behavior supports to definitions, replaces the phrase "imminent danger" with "imminent risk of harm" in the seclusion definition, adds a description and requirements for seclusion rooms, and creates a distinct definition for sensory rooms. The presenter said documentation and notification sections were rewritten to improve clarity and timeliness and that staff recently completed CPI (crisis prevention intervention) training.
Committee members asked about time limits and supervision for seclusion. The presenter said there is a 30-minute cap referenced in the policy language and that supervision typically involves an administrator or teacher observing through windows and that doors are often not shut. "When we do shut the door, it nobody wants to be detached from a student like that," the presenter said, explaining the intention is de-escalation rather than punishment.
The committee also approved changes to file JD (discipline) to expand statutory protections for school employees (per cited Act language) and recommended waiving the waiting period for adoption. Similarly, JVA (corporal punishment) was revised to add the word "physical" in the restraint exclusions per the cited Act and the committee adopted the change and waived the waiting period.
What’s next: The committee adopted the recommended revisions and will forward them for formal board action per district procedure.
