The Kansas State Board of Education decided Wednesday to begin working on guidelines on how schools should restrain or seclude unruly special education students.

However, strong regulations – not mere guidelines – are needed to ensure the safety of students who might be restrained to the point they are injured, advocates say.

“Terrible things have been happening out there across Kansas,” said Rocky Nichols, executive director of the Topeka-based Disability Rights Center.

Some of the incidents reported included holding students down with gym mats and even putting a student in a dog crate, Nichols said.

“Unfortunately, there is no regulation, which means anything goes,” Nichols said.

Jennifer Berends, whose son has cerebral palsy and oppositional defiant disorder, told the state board that her son, Matthew Whaley, was locked up on different occasions in a school restroom.

“He had to even eat his meals in this room,” she said.

Berends said because of problems her son had in another community, she decided to relocate to Lawrence.

“We moved to Lawrence public schools prior to the beginning of this school year and Matthew has not exhibited the extreme behaviors that were present in the old school,” she told the board.

Berends was among about two dozen parents of special education students from across the state who asked the board to adopt formal regulations. The regulations would spell out how school districts should handle secluding and restraining students with behavioral problems.

However, the board decided 6-4 to have its staff first study creating guidelines while collecting information about abuses in the state.

“I’m disappointed, I’m glad and I’m shocked all at the same time,” Nichols said. “I’m disappointed the board chose guidelines. I’m glad that enforceable regulations are still on the table. And shocked that inmates in Kansas prisons have more protection than children in Kansas schools, even after the state board’s actions.”

Jane Rhys, director of the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities, said the good news was the board decided to collect more information about abuses and that guidelines were being considered.

Bruce Passman, deputy superintendent for Lawrence public schools, said he was pleased the board decided not to create additional regulations for schools.

Lawrence has already come up with its own plans and procedures, which are used as part of an Individual Education Plan worked out by parents and educators, he said.

Some, not all, of Lawrence’s schools have special rooms where students are placed if they have emotional or behavioral problems, he said.

He said Free State High School recently built a time-out seclusion room and Southwest Junior High School has a room that can be used in its new addition.

According to special education statutes and regulations, parents can file a complaint to the Kansas State Department of Education, file a request for mediation or request a due process hearing, he said.

Last year there was one complaint filed against Lawrence concerning the use of a seclusion room, Passman said.

“We did address the issue to the satisfaction of the Kansas State Department of Education and the case was closed,” he said. That complaint was the only one filed in the last 20 years against Lawrence’s public schools, he said.