What to Do if Your Child Is Restrained or You Suspect Was Restrained

1. Take pictures of any visible injuries and document those injuries.

2. Take your child to his/her Pediatrician or the Emergency room for a complete physical examination.

3. Call the child abuse hotline and report it.

4. File a police report.

5. Send a "No Restraint" letter to the school principal, the district superintendent and/or members of the school board and ask that the letter be included in your child's permanent school records. You may want to either hand-deliver this or send it certified mail. A sample letter can be found here: http://www.bridges4kids.org/IEP/NoRestraintLetter.html

Note: This form may not stop the schools from restraining children but they will not be able to come back later on and say that you were aware that your child was being restrained and never objected.

6. File a complaint with your state Department of Education: http://www.ed.gov/about/contacts/state/index.html?src=ln

7. File a complaint with you state Disabilities Rights Network (aka Protection and Advocacy): http://www.napas.org/aboutus/PA_CAP.htm

8. Contact Families Against Restraint and Seclusion at http://www.blogger.com/familiesagainstrestraint@yahoo.com and share your experience. We understand what you're going through because we too have lived through it.