State Dept of Ed: 18,000+ Seclusion Incidents Reported in '09-'10

Preliminary data collected by the state Department of Education reveals that there were over 18,000 reported incidents of restraint or seclusion in public schools across the state during the 2009-10 school year, according to the New Haven Register.

During that year, districts reported 8,511 incidents of restraint and 9,823 incidents of seclusion in so-called "scream rooms," which is approximately one incident for every 30.7 students.

Although collecting data on the use of "scream rooms" is not required, the department chose to for "exploratory" reasons, spokesperson Mark Linabury told the New Haven Register. The department notes that some districts did not properly document their emergency use of restraint or seclusion, nor did some document whether the students that were affected had disabilities.

Following the national media attention that " the department said that it would collect additional data at the end of the school year.