In 2015, WAAA worked with parents, self-advocates and legislators to pass House Bill 1240. This bill was designed to reduce the use of restraint and isolation of students and encourage the use of positive supports.  Part of the law requires school districts to report the use of isolation and restraint  to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). It also requires that OSPI publish this information on its website.

In October of 2016, OSPI published its first round of statistics. These results were notable for both the frequency of use of isolation and restraint,  as well as the fact that many districts did not provide data at all. In fact, only 217 of Washington's 295 districts provided any data whatsoever. Advocates were hoping for better reporting compliance with the next release of data.

The latest set of restraint and isolation data, available at here, was released in April of this year. This release of data proved to be equally alarming in that the same issues exist. Once again many districts didn't report anything. Two-thirds of districts reported incomplete data, and many districts reported alarming levels of restraint and isolation use.  Three of the state's largest school districts, including Bellevue, Highline and Evergreen, reported no statistics whatsoever. Overall, the state's school districts reported 13,516 incidents of restraint and 8,994 incidents of isolation.   While these numbers are high, WAAA believes that under-reporting is an important issue and that the true numbers are much higher. WAAA is particularly alarmed that OSPI did not announce that it had released its data so that parents, reporters, advocates and legislators could judge whether districts are improving their practices. Private attorney Kathy George stresses that this frustrates the intent of the law in identifying and addressing trends to protect the safety of students and staff.

Out of Sight and Out of Mind is not Okay!  WAAA believes that the school districts and OSPI have a legal obligation to report all incidents of use of restraint and isolation.  WAAA will be working with OSPI, private attorneys and legislators to ensure compliant reporting of all uses of restraint and isolation. As a famous Supreme Court Justice once said, "transparency is the best disinfectant."