Feds say Sacramento-area district didn’t follow law after some students restrained, isolated
A federal watchdog’s review of Folsom Cordova Unified School District’s restraint and seclusion policies found the district was inconsistent in its record-keeping and slow to respond in some instances where students with disabilities were subjected to dozens of restraints or hours of isolation
The conclusions reached by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights come two weeks after a Rancho Cordova kindergartner was allegedly placed in an illegal restraint and struck across the face on campus.
Federal education officials launched the review of 20 school districts after the death of a 13-year-old student who was held in a prone restraint for more than an hour at the now-closed Guiding Hands school. The move caused him to asphyxiate. Folsom Cordova was one of a handful of schools in the capital region that regularly sent special-needs children to the El Dorado Hills facility.
The review said Folsom Cordova Unified in its schools infrequently held meetings for Individualized Education Programs, known as IEPs, after a student was subjected to restraints, “even in extreme situations, such as for a student who experienced 22 restraints at a district school in one year.”
In another case, a separate FCUSD student at a nonpublic school was subjected to 38 hours isolated in a “refocus room,” and was put in a prone restraint, the review said. The district did not call a meeting for this student until the end of the school year.
Investigators visited district schools and interviewed 18 employees, according to the letter to the district.
“OCR found that 54 students were restrained at 14 District schools and 11 (nonpublic schools) a total of 254 times during the two-year review period,” the letter said.
By failing to hold the meetings in a timely manner, the district deprived those students of their right to a “free appropriate public education,” the review said.
“The district agreed to resolve these violations and compliance concerns by making significant changes to its policies, procedures and training requirements with respect to the use of restraint and seclusion,” Office for Civil Rights officials said.
“We remain committed to the safety of our students and staff, continue to improve and revise policies and processes for safe learning environments for all students, and are complying with the OCR requests,” the district said.
New investigation at Folsom Cordova school
In the recent case, the mother of a 5-year-old nonverbal autistic boy said she was not notified of an incident involving her son at Williamson Elementary School in Rancho Cordova until at least two days after it happened when an aide reported it.
“Nothing was immediately reported as required by law,” Ebone McNeal said in a social media post. “So my son was subjected to being around this abuser for multiple days after she harmed him.”
District officials held an IEP meeting on Sept. 15 in which McNeal said she was given little information about the incident or what led to it.
“Nobody gave me any information really,” she said on social media. “I emailed and requested a copy of reports from the incident and got no response. Now the lawyer from the school district is calling me asking me to sit down.”
The district said it was investigating the incident and the teacher had been placed on leave.
“We want the family and the community to know that we are deeply concerned by the allegations brought forth and that we want to stay in close communication with the family,” district spokeswoman Angela Griffin said at the time. “Our concern is for their son to have a safe and welcoming learning environment where he can thrive. FCUSD takes student safety very seriously and does not tolerate the type of alleged conduct that has been reported.”
The district has not provided an update in that investigation, and its unclear if the teacher has returned to instruction.
Restraints are expressly prohibited in California schools unless the student poses an imminent danger to themselves or others. Even in that case, school staff are not permitted to put pressure on a student’s back, put their body weight on them or use any kind of tool that could restrict the student’s breathing, according to the National Association of State Boards of Education.
In 2018, Max Benson, 13, died after being held in a prone restraint by Guilding Hands staff for more than an hour. Officials at the El Dorado Hills school were later indicted by a grand jury and charged with involuntary manslaughter by the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office.
The El Dorado Hills school permanently closed following the boy’s death.