New definitions added to seclusion, restraint policy

WORLAND — The Washakie County School District No. 1 Board approved changes to the seclusion and restraint in schools policy Monday night.

Superintendent David Nicholas said the changes include shortening the current policy. He said the changes come as a direct connection to Right Response, the district’s restraint and seclusion protocol.

He said some of the procedures are removed from policy and placed in the procedures manual.

Kim Sanford said they removed language that specifically referenced the protocol or evidence-based training program so that the policy would not have to be changed each time the district changed programs.

She said there were two new definitions added to coincide with the state’s policy. Two of the new definitions include “evidence-based training program,” which “includes programs that are externally developed and have a record of successful implementation in a variety of settings, that at a minimum, emphasize training in de-escalation procedures, the specific techniques used in safe restraint ranging from the least to most restrictive, and the specific techniques to encourage the safe re-entry of the student back in to the educational environment.”

The second definition was “imminent risk” which “means an immediate and impending threat of a person causing substantial physical injury to self or others.”

Sanford said, “That definition goes along with, we want to say that we will only use our restraint with people who are trained in our restraint, using our evidence-based training program, but if it is an imminent risk, we’re not going to search the building for someone who is trained. If it’s imminent risk to harm to someone, anyone can step in and they are covered under the Good Samaritan Act. We’re not going to allow someone to be harmed while we go search for someone who is trained.”

She said the only other change was the response time to include within 24 hours of the incident or “within the documented agreed upon timeframe with the parents.” The latter portion was added to accommodate if an incident occurs near the end of the day on a Friday.

VOLUNTEER POLICY

In other policy news, the board approved the new tiered volunteer policy on second reading. Three readings are required before a policy goes into effect.

Nicholas said one change recommended on second reading was in the list of conditions that may result in someone being denied participation as a volunteer. On item No. 4, they removed the language referencing volunteer drivers since the district does not have or use volunteer drivers.

Under the proposed policy, a Tier One volunteer is “an occasional volunteer activity in a highly public setting under reasonable supervision by a WCSD No. 1 employee with little or no contact with students, does not require a volunteer application or criminal background check.” The proposed policy states that administrators must try and ensure the volunteer is not left with students outside the presence of an employee.

Examples would be volunteers for school fairs and field trips.

Tier Two is defined as “a regular volunteer activity and volunteer activity with student contact taking place under reasonable supervision, requiring a volunteer application and confidentiality agreement acknowledging FERPA requirements.” These volunteers could be room parents, class readers and volunteer coaches who do not travel with the team.

Tier Three is defined as “volunteer activity that involves unsupervised contact with students on or off campus requiring completion of a volunteer application and criminal background and fingerprint check.

Volunteer activities may include overnight field trip chaperones, one-on-one tutoring and volunteer coaches who do travel with teams.