More students are being restrained or secluded. Why Wake says it’s too much.
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wake County schools reported 1,802 restraint or seclusion cases in 2024–25.
- Disabled, Black and elementary students face disproportionate intervention rates.
- Wake pledges de-escalation training and quicker parent notifications post-incident.
The Wake County school system has seen a 38% increase in how often students are being physically restrained or locked alone in rooms by school employees.
Data presented Tuesday show 1,802 acts of restraint or seclusion were reported to the federal government in the 2024-25 school year — compared to 1,304 times the previous school year. School administrators attributed the surge to more accurate reporting of data, though they also said they want to reduce how often restraint and seclusion are used.
“We have created a far more robust strategic way of reporting the data,” Paul Walker, senior director of student due process, told the school board’s student achievement committee.
Wake has admitted in the past to under-reporting the data. Wake didn’t report any cases of restraint or seclusion to the federal government in the 2017-18 school year.
As part of an August 2023 legal settlement, Wake agreed to change how it handles and reports cases of restraint and seclusion. In that case, Wake agreed to pay $450,000 to a family who said they weren’t notified that their disabled elementary school child was confined in a closet more than 20 times.
When can you restrain students?
Educators can restrain students or seclude them in another room for several reasons, such as stopping a fight or preventing injury to themselves or others, according to Disability Rights NC. But the group says schools can’t use the practice solely for disciplinary reasons.
“Seclusion and restraint are never really to be disciplinary measures,” Walker said.
Last school year, Wake reported 1,309 incidents of physical restraint, 447 incidents of seclusion and 46 incidents of mechanical restraint to the federal government. There was a 148% increase in seclusion incidents and a 92% increase in the use of mechanical restraints.
Wake also separately reports seclusion and restraint data to the state. But Walker said the state cases are a subset of the incidents already being reported to the federal government.
Physical restraint involves a school employee personally restricting the ability of a student to move their torso, arms, legs or head freely. Mechanical restraint can involve using devices such as handcuffs and zip ties to tie, tape down or strap a student.
Seclusion involves involuntarily confining a student alone in a room from which they’re physically prevented from leaving.
Wake is now required to report to parents within 24 hours that restraint or seclusion was used with their child.
Over-representation in seclusion and restraint
Despite the increase, Wake said only 544 of its 160,000 students were restrained or secluded. But school board member Toshiba Rice said it can have a major impact on those 544 students.
”These children matter too,” Rice said. “Their school environment matters.”
Elementary students, Black students and students with disabilities accounted for the majority of reported incidents.
Rice said the disproportionality of the data raises concerns. She suggested more cultural competency training for school employees.
“Eyes turn to certain children even when they’re not doing anything,” Rice said.
Seclusion and restraint as a ‘last resort’
Administrators told the school board they’re committed to reducing how often seclusion or restraint are used.
This includes providing de-escalation training as a way for staff to find alternatives to using restraint and seclusion.
Schools with high numbers of cases of seclusion and restraint are receiving trageted training to try to reduce how ofen they’re used.
“Seclusion and restraint is always our last resort,” said Lisa Allred, assistant superintendent of special education services. “We are only using it when children are not safe and adults are not safe.”
Wake’s efforts come at the same time it’s been criticized for how it handled abuse allegations of special-education students that have led to the arrests of some teachers and instructional assistants. Wake is being sued after a special-education teacher at East Wake High School was convicted of assaulting two students.
Wake is in the process of reorganizing its special education department.
This story was originally published September 16, 2025 at 4:08 PM.
