Seclusion working group approves draft recommendations, asks staff for technical edits

The seclusion working group approved draft recommendations and directed staff to prepare technical edits at its Jan. 14 meeting, advancing a set of changes that would tighten parental-consent processes, broaden data reporting, and add language on disproportionality and funding.

Senator Seaburger, chair of the working group, proposed the motion to adopt the draft recommendations and to instruct staff to make agreed technical edits, including a new paragraph and moving language into the MDE-based data, monitoring and accountability section. The motion was moved by Miss Woodward and approved by voice vote.

Why it matters: the recommendations bundle procedural safeguards (explicit written parental consent separate from IEP paperwork; oral translation of notices); clearer reporting (schools must summarize seclusion use by student, room, grade, federal setting, counts and demographics); and new accountability measures to identify disproportionality. Proponents said the package would protect students while giving families agency and provide MDE the data to identify misuse.

What the draft includes: among the items flagged for the report, Senator Seaburger summarized an amendment (referred to in the meeting as "double o7-7") that would preserve a presumption of prohibition while allowing seclusion in grades 1–6 only after explicit written consent from all parents or guardians, with consent provided in the parents' primary language and with oral translation services available from the Department of Education. The amendment also would trigger an IEP review if a student was secluded on two separate school days within a 20-calendar-day window, and it would require schools to report the number and location of seclusion rooms, the grade and federal setting for each student secluded, frequency by student, demographics, and the positive behavior interventions used.

Supporters asked staff to add the words "and fund" after the word "mandate" in sections that would impose new district obligations, to avoid creating unfunded mandates. The group also agreed to move language requiring district adoption of approved alternative programs into the data-and-accountability section so MDE can target resources and corrective action where thresholds are exceeded.

Quotations from the meeting: Senator Seaburger said the recommendations "put agency in the hands of the parents and caregivers" and emphasized that under the proposed language "no caregiver has to consent to it"; Miss Woodward, a work-group member, urged the group to include disproportionality indicators in MDE's monitoring so districts would be notified when racial or other disparities emerged.

Next steps: staff will circulate revised draft language incorporating the agreed technical edits before the next meeting; the chair scheduled another meeting for next week and a draft final report review in two weeks to continue work on unresolved issues, including a timeline for eliminating seclusion.

The working group closed the session with the draft recommendations approved pending technical edits and with additional meetings planned to finalize language for the report.