Late last year, Propublica published a deep, blockbuster investigation into the use of brutal “discipline” techniques in Illinois’s special ed classes, some of them so extreme as to qualify as torture.
These techniques, including physically restraining children and locking them in small isolation rooms, sometimes for whole days, or even for whole consecutive days, had been strictly limited or eliminated altogether in the rest of the US, but not in Illinois.
Instead, Illinois had passed a rule requiring schools to document the use of force against children with learning disabilities. As a result, Propublica was able to FOIA thick sheaves of handwritten notes documenting children’s pleas for release at mandated 15-min intervals.
It was real Banality of Evil stuff, and it shed light on mysterious broken bones and bruises that parents had been told were self-inflicted. In the ensuing scandal, the state banned the use of these techniques, finally catching up with the rest of the nation, 20 years on.
Thanks to intense lobbying from Illinois private schools, notably Giant Steps and Markland Day School, and the public A.E.R.O Special Education Cooperative, some of the physical restraint tactics were reinstated.
Notably, face-down restraint - a tactic banned in 30+ states due to the high risk of asphyxiation - is once again permitted in special ed programs.
We can thank Rep Jim Durkin [R-82] for this. He sits on Giant Steps’s board along with 5 former colleagues from state government.
His chief of staff was an ardent advocate for reinstating face-down restraint in Illinois schools. He declined to comment to Propublica.
