RRIE (Restraint Reduction and Isolation elimination) Demo Sites Application

In collaboration with the Haring Center for Inclusive Education at the University of Washington, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), is partnering with school districts across the state to create demonstration sites highlighting best practices in reducing the use of restraint and eliminating the use of isolation. These schools will participate in transformational professional development, and in turn provide learning experiences that inspires continuous improvement, with the goal of creating learning communities to be used as sites for research, professional development, and model demonstration sites for best practices in positive behavior support. These schools will serve as exemplars that show the benefits of reducing restraint and eliminating isolation on student outcomes. Districts/programs who apply are committed to:

Collaborate with OSPI and partners to implement practices and schoolwide support systems with the goal of eliminating isolation and reducing restraint use. The schoolwide systems must include trauma-informed positive behavior and intervention supports, de-escalation, and problem-solving skills.

Continuously partner with OSPI and external partners to highlight the systems and processes that have contributed to the elimination of student isolation and reduction of restraint use in the school/district.
Engage in professional learning activities to support the building of school-level and district-level systems that eliminate student isolation, track and reduce restraint use, and build schoolwide systems to support students in distress and prevent crisis escalation cycles that may result in restraint or isolation.
Provide student level data, program information, project feedback and reflections to OSPI as needed.

Apply here.

UPDATED! Principles and Practices to Build and Sustain Inclusive Schools Tool

At the onset of the IPP Project, there were many inquiries into specifying what was meant when the term “inclusionary practices” was referenced. This document was created in response to define inclusionary practices more clearly. In conjunction with our partnership with demonstration sites, this document is a result of what we have learned, and continue to learn, regarding inclusionary practices to build and sustain inclusive schools, districts and communities.

The Principles and Practices tool adopts a critically inclusive lens which guides teams to self-assess inclusionary principles and practices occurring in their contexts. This tool supports ongoing reflection and action planning throughout continuous cycles of analyzing, disrupting, and restructuring social processes that produce inequity (Siuty, 2019) . The following principles and practices are pivotal to supporting schools and districts to build and sustain inclusive schools. The tool is framed around an appreciative inquiry lens to take a strength-based approach and celebrate practices that are in place.

Please check out other featured inclusionary resources.

Monroe High School Model of Inclusion

Understanding that ALL students learn best when they are challenged, provided with support, and feel that they belong in their school, Monroe High School has spent years working toward phasing out the “pull-out” model where students who need support, including multilingual learners, are pulled out of general education classrooms for support and separated from their peers.

To expand access for all students, MHS has developed — with plenty of trial and error — a way to maximize the teaching staff, be creative with scheduling and assign two teachers to many classrooms, a practice known as co-teaching. In an Algebra class, for example, there’s a subject matter expert — the math teacher — and then a second teacher who focuses on providing support. This means targeted services, support and accommodations are provided to students who need them within general education classrooms with their peers.

This hasn’t come easy. This shift has required a tremendous amount of work by staff – learning new ways to teach classrooms full of very diverse learners, how to provide accommodations within the classroom, and how to co-plan and co-teach with special education teachers.

Month: November 2023