Posted with permission:
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As some of you know, there has been some press recently on the dangers of restraints/holds for our Special Education students in schools. There have been over 10 deaths nationwide from using these practices on our children. We had the opportunity to meet with Senator Huppenthal and Representative Crandall (the Education chairs in the Senate and House). Senator Huppenthal is running a bill to establish a task force on restraints/seclusion and we need your help to contact via phone and e-mail each of the 30 Senators. See the e-mail below. Please join us in helping to protect these vulnerable students from these dangerous and inappropriate holds/restraints/seclusions for our kids. We went down for the first hearing in the Education committee and it passed unanimously 7-0, however, Dept. of Ed. was trying to keep this task force under their watch and we want this separate set of eyes on this new task force to take a look at this issue and make recommendations.
I personally know several families that have gone through horrific experiences with restraints, so this is happening here in Arizona and we need your help to get this legislation put into place!
To track the bill: (This bill started out as a dental bill but was changed so click on show adopted amendments to see a version of this bill)
To watch the Senate Education hearing on Senate Bill SB1197:
Arizona State Senate COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION ACCOUNTABILITY AND REFORM
In order to maximize the impact to the Senators, please cut and paste your message into an individual e-mail to each Senator. Learning from our experience last year passing Steven’s Law, they will just delete any e-mails that are sent to all Senators. Thanks for your help, we couldn’t do this without ALL of you contacting ALL of the Senators! Once again, this is URGENT, so please take action ASAP!!
Update on SB1197 the Arizona seclusion/restraint Bill: It creates a task force that will report to the Arizona Board of Education “Best Practices” on Special needs behavior management.
It is now an ‘emergency measure’ that will take effect June 30, instead of 90 days after. It will take 60 days to report back it’s findings, not a year. We need 2/3’s of the Senate to vote “yes” for this to pass-because it will have to take effect immediately,
in order for the Task force to report to the US Department of Education; THEY want all States to have clear guidelines by Start of SCHOOL YEAR:)
All 30 Senators will vote on SB1197 Thursday, in the COW (whole vote) of the Senate. So,
1. Write a nice letter:
Dear Senator ________. Please, vote “Yes” for SB1197, Task force Special Education Behavior Management.
we need a task force that will recommend best practices for special needs children in schools. Thank you very much for your consideration,
Signed, You. (Be sure to put “Please Vote Yes for SB1197” in the subject line of your e-mail!)
Be super-thankful, and we really need each of their votes. If we don’t get it-the Bill will stop there.
2. Call each Senators office and leave a message with the Secretary stating you would like Senator _____ to vote “Yes” on SB1197. The Secretary keeps a tally for the Senator and will let them know how many phone calls they get on each particular bill.
Please try to do both of these today since they will be voting on this tomorrow!! THANK YOU!
Paula Aboud 28 D paboud@azleg.gov 602-926-5262
Amanda Aguirre 24 D aaguirre@azleg.gov 602-926-4139
Carolyn S. Allen 8 R callen@azleg.gov 602-926-4480
Sylvia Allen 5 R sallen@azleg.gov 602-926-5219
Manuel V. “Manny” Alvarez 25 D malvarez@azleg.gov 602-926-5895
Meg Burton Cahill 17 D mburtoncahill@azleg.gov 602-926-5993
Ken Cheuvront 15 D kcheuvront@azleg.gov 602-926-4124
Jorge Luis Garcia 27 D jgarcia@azleg.gov 602-926-4171
Pamela Gorman 6 R pgorman@azleg.gov 602-926-5284
Ron Gould 3 R rgould@azleg.gov 602-926-4138
Chuck Gray 19 R cgray@azleg.gov 602-926-5288
Linda Gray 10 R lgray@azleg.gov 602-926-3376
Albert Hale 2 D ahale@azleg.gov 602-926-4323
Jack W. Harper 4 R jharper@azleg.gov 602-926-4178
John Huppenthal 20 R jhuppenthal@azleg.gov 602-926-5261 (Doesn’t need to be convinced since he is the bill sponsor, but could use thank you’s for doing this!)
Leah Landrum Taylor 16 D llandrumtaylor@azleg.gov 602-926-3830
Barbara Leff 11 R bleff@azleg.gov 602-926-4486
Linda Lopez 29 D llopez@azleg.gov 602-926-4089
Debbie McCune Davis 14 D dmccunedavis@azleg.gov 602-926-4485
Al Melvin 26 R amelvin@azleg.gov 602-926-4326
Richard Miranda 13 D rmiranda@azleg.gov 602-926-5911
John Nelson 12 R jnelson@azleg.gov 602-926-5872
Jonathan Paton 30 R jpaton@azleg.gov 602-926-3235
Russell Pearce 18 R rpearce@azleg.gov 602-926-5760
Steve Pierce 1 R spierce@azleg.gov 602-926-5584
Rebecca Rios 23 D rrios@azleg.gov 602-926-5685
Jay Tibshraeny 21 R jtibshraeny@azleg.gov 602-926-4481
Thayer Verschoor 22 R tverschoor@azleg.gov 602-926-4136
Jim Waring 7 R jwaring@azleg.gov 602-926-4916
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Ar4JZOD98
Hi Melissa,
Here is the video that has drawn so much outrage here in Prescott and nationwide.
It has been forwarded to all the politicians in AZ and DC.
Please post it to your blog and forward to your friends.
Also check out PUSDinCRISIS.com to see the challenges in our school district in Prescott.
God Bless!
Greg