Physical restraints are always supposed to be a last resort and only used if the student is in immediate harm to themselves or others and there is nothing else you can safely do. BIPs with strong preventative interventions are in place for a reason. Sometimes it is still unavoidable.

Depending on the student, staff, behaviors and situation there are things staff might be able to do to keep even safer due to Covid. Things we wouldn’t normally have in place for a behavior that is sporadic but might for one that happens every day- for example wearing arm guards or jean jackets around kids that bit or scratch.

School district BCBAs are working tirelessly right now to edit behavior plans (that honestly may not even be applicable anymore because behaviors may have diminished in the home environments or may be worse when they come to school if it was demand based functionally!) We are weighing the risks of Covid with the benefit of each intervention, as well as looking at what is the Least Restrictive Environment for the students learning. We know these kids usually don’t do well with remote learning and require hands on for academic, social emotional, life skills and other development. It’s spelled out in their IEPs. But we also know that staff and other students also need to be kept safe.

It’s a very blurry, individualized fine line we are working with here and it’s not fun trying to navigate it with the ever changing rules and regulations being thrown at us by the state and our districts.