Federal investigation reveals St. Johns County schools restrained students with disabilities

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The St. Johns County School District is under fire for restraining students with disabilities.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights investigated several schools and found some serious concerns.

The department found several students were restrained for extended periods of time, and it forced the district to change its policies.

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The Federal Office of Civil Rights found some students were restrained more than a hundred times in a matter of two school years.

The Office of Civil Rights investigated two school years from 2017 to 2019.

The OCR found about 950 restraints involved 132 students with disabilities between 2017-2018.

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And the following year had more than 1700 restraints involving 153 students.

One student was restrained more than 120 times during two school years and another student was restrained for nearly 6 hours in one case.

OCR found the district had problems with reviewing a student’s loss of education because of restraints and discovered poor record-keeping practices.

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Action News Jax Annette Gutierrez spoke with a Beachside High School parent who did not want to show her face on camera.

She says she has a child with disabilities and was stunned to hear about this investigation.

“That’s sad. I would be hurt for my child if that was my child. Everybody’s kid is not the same, so they just got to figure out something to work for them,” she said.

Following the investigation, the district agreed to take the necessary steps to protect the civil rights of students with disabilities.

They include reviewing all the students affected to see if they need to add more instruction or education because of missed school time from the restraints.

It also includes revising the district’s policy and manuals, implementing a monitoring program, training staff, and developing a process for accurate reporting.

Action News Jax reached out to the school district, and a spokesperson said they won’t be commenting on this on Monday.

But Monday’s letter from OCR said the district has committed to take the listed steps.

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