During the 2017 legislative session, Senate Bill 786 was passed. The Senate Bill requires that each
public agency, public school system, and nonpublic special education school in Maryland submit
annual data on restraint and seclusion to the Maryland State Department of Education. These data
will be compiled into a report that will be shared with the General Assembly.
The requested data includes the following: (1) Incidents of Restraint and Seclusion; (2) Professional
Development; (3) Observation of Seclusion Rooms; and (4) Review of Training Plans for the Use of
Seclusion.
Please complete the following items based upon the data that have been collected from July 1, 2017
to June 1, 2018. The survey will be open from June 1, 2018 to June 29, 2018.
Contact: For any questions about the data collection or survey, please contact Deborah Nelson by
email at deborah.nelson@maryland.gov or by phone at 410-767-0294.
Definitions
NONPUBLIC SCHOOL: a school that receives funds from the Maryland State Department of
Education for the purpose of providing special education and related services to students with
disabilities.
PUBLIC AGENCY: the Maryland State Department of Education, a local school system, the Maryland
School for the Deaf, the Maryland School for the Blind.
SECLUSION: confinement of a student alone in an enclosure or any other space from which the
student is physically prevented from leaving.
PHYSICAL RESTRAINT: the use of physical force, without the use of any devise or material, to
restrict the free movement of all or a portion of a student’s body. PHYSICAL RESTRAINT does not
include: Briefly holding a student in order to calm or comfort the student; Holding a student’s hand
or arm to escort the student safely from one area to another; Moving a disruptive student who is
unwilling to leave the area when other methods such as counseling have been unsuccessful; or
Breaking up a fight in the school building or on school grounds.
MECHANICAL RESTRAINT: Any device or material attached or adjacent to the student's body that
restricts freedom of movement or normal access to any portion of the student's body and that the
student cannot easily remove. MECHANICAL RESTRAINT does not include a protective or
stabilizing device.
(Definitions used for restraint and seclusion are from the current Maryland Education Article § 7-
1101)
Survey Background, Instructions, and Definitions