Schools under new guidance may no longer use seclusion as a way of dealing with challenging behaviour involving vulnerable students.
In addition, physical restraint is no longer permitted in schools except in a “crisis” situation where there is an imminent risk to the student or others. These include situations such as a student self-injuring by banging their head, throwing large items such as computers or furniture at peers or adults or physically attacking another person.
The new guidelines, published by the Department of Education, apply to all schools, and have been developed to address uncertainty among staff on how to respond in crisis situations.
Advocacy groups have warned over the past decade of the need to introduce guidelines following reports of children who have experienced traumatic incidents of restraint or seclusion in schools. Minister for Education Norma Foley said the guidance would “aid schools and provide guidance on effective approaches to supporting students with behaviours of concern”.
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However, autism charity AsIAm said it was firmly of the view that aspects of the guidance do not go far enough to safeguard vulnerable pupils and may breach child protection laws. It said safeguards around restraint were lower than those used in health, social care and prison settings, and called on the next government to “immediately initiate a full independent review” to update the guidelines in line with international best practice.
A previous poll by the charity of more than 1,700 parents and carers of autistic young people found that seclusion and restraint were common experiences for vulnerable children.
The new department guidelines, Understanding Behaviours of Concern and Responding to Crisis Situations, define seclusion as placing a student involuntarily in any environment in which they are alone and physically prevented from leaving. This can include physically preventing a student from leaving through the use of a locked door, a blocked door or an exit held closed by a staff member.
Seclusion may also include a situation where a student believes they cannot leave a space although no physical block is evident.
The use of “time out” for students should be reviewed to ensure it is done with the agreement of a student and is not a crisis response.
Where physical restraint is used in a crisis situation, meanwhile, it must be “timely, measured and carried out by appropriately trained” staff. If physical restraint has been used it must be documented, reported and reviewed with a view to reducing and eliminating the need for physical restraint.
From September 2025, schools are required to report such instances to the NCSE, which will collate quarterly reports on the extent of the practice being deployed. AsIAm, however, expressed concern that this means the NCSE will receive potentially large quantities of information relating to child protection with “no ability to investigate and without a formal referral pathway to Tusla, the appropriate statutory authority appropriate to investigate such concerns”.
Unlike in child residential care settings, there have been no detailed guidelines on the use of seclusion and restraint in schools until now.
The guidelines also state that “de-escalation” strategies should also be engaged in at an early point to avoid behaviours posing a safety risk, while schools with a need for specialised training in the use of restraint should access approved training.
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