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Student Restraint Report

State regulations broadly define restraint as restriction of students' freedom of movement. The definition does not include a brief physical contact to promote student safety or redirect or physical escort. For more information, please see 603 CMR 46.02.

The Student Restraint Report begins with the 2016-17 school year (July 1, 2016-June 30, 2017). (The reporting requirements were different prior to January 1, 2016, when the new restraint regulations went into effect.) The 2016-17 school year was the start of a new data collection system for this report.

Data in this report are suppressed (dash in the cells) when:

• Fewer than 6 students were restrained.
• The number of injuries to staff or students is between 1 and 5.

As ESE does not collect enrollment data for collaboratives or approved special education schools, blank cells appear in their enrollment column. Schools are not listed here if they or their district on their behalf certified to the Department that they did not have any restraints. District-level data are not available for this report at this time.

The schools listed in this report include public schools, public school collaboratives, and approved day and residential special education schools. These categories of schools serve different student populations, and some may have a significantly longer school year, which may account for differences in the data reported. Other factors that can lead to variation in restraint rates are age range and the health and safety needs of the students served. Because of these differences, the data reported do not support comparisons between schools.

More information is available in this memo. For background on the regulations that require this collection, see this question and answer guide. For information on how the data are submitted, please see our technical assistance page.

Restraint data are among the items the Department reviews in its monitoring of schools. The most recent program review and mid-cycle review reports for approved special education schools are posted at http://www.doe.mass.edu/pqa/review/psr/, and the most recent coordinated program reviews and mid-cycle reviews for public school districts are posted at http://www.doe.mass.edu/pqa/review/cpr/default.html.