Impact Policy
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Raise Your Voice at State Budget Hearings!
The Joint Committee on Finance has announced their schedule for public hearings on the state budget for 2019/21. Anyone can attend and speak about what you want to see in the budget. Each speaker gets two minutes, which goes by quickly! You can submit written comments.
The hearings will be held in Janesville (April 5), Oak Creek (April 10), River Falls (April 15), and Green Bay (April 24).
Budget Hearing Schedule and Locations
Joint Finance Committee Members
- You can email written comments on the state budget to budgetcomments@legis.wisconsin.gov, whether or not you are able to attend a hearing.
- Be sure to share your budget priorities with your own state legislators too! Get contact information for your State Senator and Assembly Representative using the Find Your Legislators box on the state legislature home page.
Impact Policy: Restraint & Seclusion
UPDATE: Wisconsin Senate Passes SB 527, amending the state's Seclusion & Restraint law
“SB 527 is the first step to finding and adopting better ways to meet the behavioral needs of vulnerable students,” said Hugh Davis, executive director of Wisconsin Family Ties. “This bill is designed to assist educators, school administrators, and affected families accomplish that goal and we look forward to Governor Evers signing SB-527 into law.”

Restraint & Seclusion in Schools: Improving Wisconsin Law
It’s time to improve Wisconsin’s law on restraint and seclusion in schools!
UPDATE: The Senate Education Committee held a public hearing on SB 527, the bill to improve Wisconsin law on restraint and seclusion in schools, on November 19. The committee must now hold a vote, and then the Assembly Education Committee needs to hold a hearing and vote on the identical AB 585 so the bill can go to the full legislature.
- The text of the bill (PDF)
- Wisconsin Family Ties testimony (PDF)
- Disability Rights Wisconsin testimony (PDF)
- The Arc Wisconsin testimony (PDF)
- Survival Coalition testimony (PDF)
- Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities testimony (PDF)
The bill to improve Wisconsin statutes regulating restraint and seclusion in schools was introduced in both the Senate and Assembly on October 25. The bill is numbered AB 585 in the Assembly and SB 527 in the Senate. The bill would make the following improvements:
- Require that restraint and seclusion data be reported to DPI as well as school boards (under current law, only school boards receive the data)
- Require schools to convey a written incident report to parents, including the names & titles of covered individuals and law enforcement officers present (current law only requires that parents be notified that the report exists, and does not require law enforcement officer’s names to be included)
- Remove the requirement that IEP teams decide whether restraint/seclusion is likely to be used a second time
- Require that the principal meet with the staff who participated in the incident to discuss the sequence of events and strategies to prevent future incidents
- Explicitly prohibit prone restraint
- Clarify that incidents involving law enforcement officers must be reported in a district’s data, even though law enforcement officers are not defined as “covered individuals” in the restraint/seclusion statute
- Specify that the restraint and seclusion law applies also to students who are district-placed into private schools
- Clarify the definition of “incident” for data reporting purposes
- Update the training requirements for an increased focus on de-escalation, and remove the requirement (but not prohibit) the teaching of “hands-on” techniques.
Current co-sponsors, both Republicans and Democrats, include Representatives Quinn, Considine, Dittrich, Bowen, Cabrera, Crowley, Doyle, Edming, Felzkowski, Jagler, Kulp,Milroy, Novak, Ohnstad, Ramthun, Rodriguez, Sargent, Spreitzer, Subeck, C. Taylor, Tittl, Vruwink, Wittke, Zimmerman and Stubbs; Senators Olsen, Johnson, Darling, Bewley, Cowles, Kooyenga, Larson, Schachtner and L. Taylor.
You can also contact your own legislators and ask them to support the bill, by calling the Wisconsin Legislative Hotline 1-800-362-9472, or by looking them up on the Wisconsin Legislative Maps page (enter your address at the upper right of the page).
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In 2012, Wisconsin passed Act 125 to regulate the use of restraint and seclusion in our schools. Experiences of schools and families since then have shown where we need to make improvements to the law.
In February 2016, Wisconsin Family Ties (WFT), Disability Rights Wisconsin (DRW) and WI FACETS released a report called Seclusion & Restraint in Wisconsin Public School Districts 2013-2014: Miles to Go that highlighted how often restraint and seclusion are still being used in our schools.
- Restraint and seclusion were used over 20,000 times statewide in 2013/14
- Nearly 80% of the students involved were students with disabilities.
Many of the recommendations in the report were included in a bi-partisan bill that was introduced in 2018. (Unfortunately, the session ended before the bill could pass).
Join the WFT email list for policy updates and action alerts, including on the restraint and seclusion bill!
Send your request in an email message to: info@wifamilyties.org
How Seclusion Feels
“I feel like I’m handcuffed to a brick wall.”
(Artist: Chance)
Reports on Restraint & Seclusion in Wisconsin:
Seclusion & Restraint in Wisconsin Public School Districts 2013-2014: Miles to Go (February 2016)