When all you have is a hammer, you need a bigger toolbox

Maximize Meaningful Inclusion. The best way to prevent time-out, restraint and seclusion is to not have a reason to consider it.

There are few seamless, non-punitive and non-patronizing tools that empower meaningful inclusion – most are reactive. By the time a student needs coping skills, a behavior plan, or is subject to discipline, disruption has escalated and LRE is at risk. The illusion of inclusion is when a student is merely physically present in the classroom. Meaningful inclusion is when the whole-school environment supports a student’s engagement, participation, access to grade level academic and social curricula – and provides opportunities for generalizing combined skills.

This working 1 1/2 hour session or ongoing consulting series will help school and district teams plan for critical consideration areas – for which there may not be functional solutions –  including the need to balance requirements to:

• Determine “imminent threat” before an “involuntary confinement” while ensuring a student believes they “are permitted to leave.”
• Obtain prior informed parental consent (Opt in, Opt out?) that is “acknowledged in writing by the principal.”
• Obtain documentation from a physician identifying any “medical, psychological or behavioral contraindications.”
• Consider alternatives by August 17, 2029.

Develop multi-level, multi-grade alternative and preventative toolboxes for students, staff, peers, and families.

As written, the new regulations will do little to nothing to replace discipline as the only tool provided to our general educators. For students with underdeveloped skills that manifest as behavioral challenges, implementation, even with fidelity, will continue to make functional, meaningful inclusion implausible and, for those students who are out-of-district, a return to their own communities near impossible.

This training will help schools and districts develop functional "alternatives" to reducing the need for discipline and Time Out by maximizing Time In. Teams will learn how to develop bigger, more functional, customizable, multi-level toolboxes for students, staff, families, and peers: 

• Level 3 Tools, Reactive Pause Buttons including; Coping Skills (breathing, breaks, Sensory Toolbox), Restraint, Seclusion, Discipline, and Time Out.
• Level 2 Tools, Evidence-based independent-skill-building to prevent future escalations, including; Counseling, ABA, SP&L, OT, Collaborative Problem Solving, SEL, and IEP goals.
• Level 1 Tools, Escalation prevention, Unstuck Protocol, Previewing, Shifting all school culture approach from trauma-sensitive to neuroceptive-responsive.