The Florida Districts Most Likely to Seclude Or Restrain Students

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Leon County schools were most likely to seclude students last year, while Orange and Hillsborough county schools restrained students most often.

Leon County schools led the state in the number of students put into seclusion for behavior or safety reason in 2012, according to Florida Department of Education data.

Leon County schools used seclusion almost twice as often as the next district on the list, Pinellas County schools.

Orange and Hillsborough county schools were most likely to physically restrain students — more than 900 times each during the past school year.

Seclusion and restraint are most often used on students with disabilities. School officials say the techniques are often necessary to protect students and staff.

Our colleagues at StateImpact Ohio have reported that many Ohio districts misuse seclusion and that many teachers are not trained in its use.

Florida lawmakers have considered — and rejected — a bill which would prohibit the use of seclusion and would only allow restraint when there is an “imminent risk of serious injury or death to student or others.”

Overall, the use of both seclusion and restraint declined statewide from the 2011 school year.

Check out our sortable, searchable table below.

A note about the data: Federal law requires school districts to mask data which could be used to identify individual students. In Florida, that means any district using seclusion or restraint less than 10 times in a year — including zero — is marked with an asterisk.

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