Missouri school used solitary confinement to discipline disabled students, DOJ finds

Federal investigators found routine ADA violations

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Feb. 23 that a Missouri school district routinely locked students with disabilities in rooms alone and physically restrained them as everyday punishment.

After a 21-month investigation, the DOJ said the Special School District of St. Louis County violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by using seclusion and restraint as a first response to misbehavior, not a last resort.

The agency has proposed a settlement and could sue if the district refuses reforms.

The district serves 3,500 disabled students

The Special School District of St. Louis County is Missouri’s largest special education provider.

It partners with 22 public school districts across the county and runs six of its own schools, five of which serve only students with disabilities ages 4 through 21.

About 3,500 students with disabilities attend those schools.

The district has its own elected superintendent and board of education, operating as a separate entity from the local districts it supports.

Students were secluded almost 4,000 times

The numbers from the investigation are staggering.

Over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, the district secluded more than 300 students almost 4,000 times. Staff restrained almost 150 students a total of 777 times.

That works out to about 11 seclusions every school day. Nearly 40% of all students across the district’s schools were secluded during that stretch.

One school secluded 91% of students

One school in the district, with fewer than 100 students enrolled, used seclusion 1,667 times over two years.

That school secluded 91% of its students during the investigation period, and every single student who attended was secluded or restrained at least once. Another school was not far behind.

It secluded 75% of its students and used seclusion 1,216 times over the same two years.

Kids were locked away for minor behavior

Missouri law and district policy only allow seclusion when a student poses an immediate physical danger to themselves or others. But the DOJ found the district ignored that standard.

Students were secluded for knocking over a teacher’s coffee, refusing to go to music class, or being called disrespectful. One student spent three and a half hours in seclusion for drawing on her chair.

The DOJ’s expert said the district treated seclusion as its first response, not its last. Some reports showed students had already calmed down before staff placed them in seclusion rooms.

One child spent 101 hours secluded

One student was secluded 186 times in a single school year, spending a total of 101 hours alone in a room. That equals about 17 full school days lost.

A different student was restrained 372 times over two years for nearly 35 hours total. Even the youngest kids were affected.

Five students in first and second grade experienced a combined 308 seclusions,totaling 111 hours of missed class time.

Students harmed themselves in seclusion rooms

The DOJ documented more than 50 incidents of students hurting themselves while locked in seclusion rooms.

Investigators said secluding students who are already harming themselves actually makes things worse, since staff cannot step in when the child is alone behind a locked door.

The DOJ’s findings letter stated that the district’s seclusion practices caused harm rather than prevented it. The pattern pointed to a system that put isolation ahead of intervention.

District used dangerous restraint holds repeatedly

The district used supine restraints, where staff hold a student on their back and pin their arms and legs, more than 400 times.

Nearly all of those happened at Northview High School, which serves students from several north county districts.

The DOJ said supine restraints are dangerous and have led to children’s deaths because they can restrict breathing.

Incident reports showed staff sometimes used these holds even when no one faced immediate physical danger.

Behavior plans were outdated and generic

The DOJ traced the overuse of seclusion and restraint back to a deeper problem: the district failed to give students proper support.

One student who experienced 398 restraint and seclusion incidents had a behavior plan based on an evaluation done six years earlier.

Investigators found major similarities across different students’ behavior plans, suggesting staff may not have tailored them to each child.

Some students were put on shortened schedules or sent home without getting extra help.

Superintendent says district is reviewing findings

Superintendent Michael Maclin said the district received the DOJ’s notice and is reviewing the findings with legal counsel. Maclin stated that student safety remains the district’s top priority.

In a separate letter to families, he said the district uses proactive behavior supports, de-escalation strategies, and individualized plans, with yearly staff training.

But the DOJ said the district did not fully cooperate with its investigation, missing deadlines and blocking school visits. Investigators said their findings may understate the full scope of violations.

No federal law governs school restraint

There is no federal law that governs restraint and seclusion in schools.

During the 2021-22 school year, about 105,700 public school students were restrained or secluded nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Students with disabilities made up about 14% of enrollment but accounted for 68% of those secluded and 76% of those restrained.

A bipartisan bill called the Keeping All Students Safe Act was reintroduced in Congress in December 2025 to ban seclusion in federally funded schools.

Congress has tried to pass similar laws since at least 2009 without success.

In Missouri, a state lawmaker has introduced a bill that would let partner districts pull out of SSD.

DOJ demands the district end seclusion entirely

The DOJ laid out nine steps the district must take to avoid a federal lawsuit. The district must stop using seclusion entirely and end supine restraints.

Any restraint going forward can only happen when a student poses an immediate physical danger. The district must also provide makeup educational and counseling services to students who were secluded and restrained.

Parents must get prompt, complete records of any restraint, and the district must set up a real complaint process. Staff must receive training to meet students’ needs and follow the law.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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