The Maryland Disability Law Center (MDLC) is planning to take on the issue of the use of restraints, seclusion, and time-outs in schools. Because there currently are no State Department of Education regulations, policies, or procedures regarding the use of restraints, seclusion, and time-outs in schools, and because of the serious nature of some of MDLC's current cases, as well as the restraint death that occurred at Edgemeade this year, MDLC has decided to move forward with proposed legislation in the upcoming legislative session. 

In addition, the Maryland Coalition of Families for Children's Mental Health and Parents' Place have begun a project to gather information and address the use of time-out and seclusion in schools; we have joined forces to coordinate our efforts.

We are still in the information-gathering stage and will draft a proposed bill shortly.  We are looking at other state statutes and gathering information from the local school systems in Maryland, and we are beginning to contact families for information and for support in Annapolis.

While the MDLC is performing research and drafting the bill,   the Coalition and Parents' Place are collecting information from families and developing a database.  If you have information to share about your child's experiences in any of these situations, please contact either the Coalition or Parents' Place. The contact person for the Coalition is Jan Yokum de Calderon, who can be reached by e-mail at jan@mdcoalition.org or by phone at (410) 730-8267. The contact person for Parents' Place is Josie Thomas, who can be reached by e-mail at josie@ppmd.org or by phone at (410) 859-5300.

Please be prepared to provide the following information:

1.  Your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address if available, jurisdiction, name of school, grade, age of child, race/ethnicity, gender, and disability.

2.  Was your child placed in seclusion?  Time-out? Mechanical restraints?  Physical restraints?  Describe the type of seclusion (such as locked door, no supervision, or size of room  -- whatever information you have) or restraint (type of hold, item used for restraint, etc.), length of time, and frequency of use.  Also describe where this took place -- for instance, if restraints were used,  were they used at school or during transportation to or from school?

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The Yost Legal Group is putting together data for a possible lawsuit in regard to the vaccine/autism connection. 

If you think that your child was negatively impacted by vaccines, please contact Dana at the Yost Legal Clinic at (410) 659-6800.