Out of the institution, into the classroom: Legal challenges to the use of restraint and seclusion in school settings in the United States

Abstract

The issue of restraint and seclusion of children with mental and developmental disabilities in schools has gained greater attention in the United States in recent years as more children with disabilities are attending mainstream schools. This article looks at how cases brought on behalf of children who have been subjected to such treatment fit or fail to fit within a well-developed jurisprudence that provides constitutional protections for the rights of people with mental disabilities to be free from discrimination and from cruel and unusual punishment. It examines this jurisprudence in light of Article 16's emphasis on the provision of age- and gender-appropriate services to protect people with disabilities from exploitation, violence, and abuse.11This paper forms part of a special edition of the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry entitled ‘Protecting people with disabilities from harm, exploitation and abuse: Unlocking the potential of Article 16 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’. For a full view of the contents of this special edition, go to http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-law-and-psychiatry.