Summary
Florida House Bill 1073, which revises provisions relating to licensure and standards for facilities and programs for persons with developmental disabilities, will be effective on July 1, 2010. The bill requires training for child care personnel on care of children with developmental disabilities, as well as requirements for use of seclusion and restraint on public school students with disabilities.
Brief
An act relating to persons with disabilities;
amending S. 393.067, F.S.; revising provisions relating to licensure and standards for facilities and programs for persons with developmental disabilities;
amending s. 393.13, F.S.; revising rights for persons with developmental disabilities;
amending s. 402.305, F.S.; requiring minimum training for child care personnel to include the identification and care of children with developmental disabilities;
creating s. 1003.573, F.S.; requiring that each school prepare an incident report within a specified period after each occasion of student restraint or seclusion;
requiring that each school notify a student's parent or guardian if manual physical restraint or seclusion is used;
requiring certain reporting and monitoring; requiring that each school district develop and revise policies and procedures governing the incident reports, data collection, and the monitoring and reporting of such data;
prohibiting school personnel from using a mechanical restraint or a manual physical restraint that restricts a student's breathing;
prohibiting school personnel from closing, locking, or physically blocking a student in a room that is unlit and does not meet the rules of the State Fire Marshal for seclusion time-out rooms;
amending s. 1004.55, F.S.; requiring regional autism centers to provide certain support for serving children with developmental disabilities;
creating s. 1012.582, F.S.; requiring the Commissioner of Education to develop recommendations to incorporate instruction relating to developmental disabilities into continuing education or inservice training requirements for instructional personnel; requiring the Department of Education to incorporate the course curricula into existing requirements for such education or training;
Click here for more information on Florida House Bill 1073 [PDF].
CPI Training Can Help
The Nonviolent Crisis Intervention® training program equips staff in techniques for both the preveniton of and safe use of manual restraint. Our program provides training in identifying the underlying causes of the client behaviors that can lead to restraint, and in understanding how staff behavior affects client behavior, and vice versa. The training focuses on prevention and de-escalation techniques and other alternatives to the use of restraint, as well as information on evaluating risk of harm; monitoring for signs of distress, documenting incidents; and safe, less restrictive physical interventions to be used only as a last resort.