The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Ross Greene is the founder of the Freeport-based nonprofit Lives in the Balance and adjunct professor in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech and in the faculty of science at University of Technology Sydney. Ben Jones is the director of legal and policy initiatives at Lives in the Balance.
In 2021, the state of Maine took a giant leap forward — and set a national example — by making it harder for educators to restrain and seclude students. When LD 1373 became law, Maine was on the forefront of national standards to protect students and educators from these dangerous practices. While strongly opposed by some influential constituencies — including superintendent and principal associations — Gov. Janet Mills did what we consider the right thing and let the bill become law.
On June 11, Maine took a step backward. LD 1248 — which Gov. Janet Mills signed into law — makes it easier for school staff to use restraint, seclusion, and physical escort. LD 1248 undid two key pieces of the 2021 law that protected students from unnecessary harm. First, the “physical escort” loophole was reopened, signaling to school staff that they can move kids against their will without calling it a restraint. Second, the threshold for when restraint or seclusion can be used was relaxed, opening up the potential for these practices to be used when there is no real emergency.
The primary rationale for the about-face, as made clear in the hearings and public testimony for LD 1248, is that more students are struggling behaviorally. This is not unique to Maine. Rates of concerning behavior (along with rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide) have been rising nationally before and especially after COVID.
The Maine Education Policy Research Institute March report, “Maine K-12 Educator and Administrator Experiences Managing Challenging Student Behavior in Schools,” tells the story:
Fifty-two percent of Maine educators reported having managed behavior crises during the 2023–2024 school year and 70 percent of them managed behavior crises at least monthly. Educators report limited confidence in the effectiveness of available behavior supports and have few opportunities for professional development related to addressing challenging behavior. Educators reported behavior supports intended to prevent challenging behavior from occurring were slightly to inconsistently effective. Educators reported behavior supports intended to discourage future occurrences of behavior were not effective to inconsistently effective. Many educators report a lack of preparation or confidence in positive and preventative behavior supports, which means educators are more likely to rely on ineffective, punitive, or restrictive practices (e.g., suspension, restraint, seclusion) that do not reduce challenging behavior and may exacerbate behavior.
The factors contributing to this deterioration in the mental health of many students are complex. As the data attest, pointing the finger at COVID is too simple. COVID laid bare trends that were already in motion and issues that were already present. COVID just made things worse. And these issues and trends most assuredly will not be resolved with increased manhandling of students.
Yes, some of the kids are difficult, and being an educator has never been harder. But, regrettably, way too much of the training provided to educators working with at-risk students is on crisis management: what to do once a student is already escalated. That’s where restraint and seclusion come in.
The “restraint industry” generates hundreds of millions of dollars a year in revenue for the companies providing such training. Helping educators keep kids and classrooms safe means providing training on crisis prevention: solving problems with students well before they cause concerning behaviors and ensuring that the expectations being placed on students are realistic. Many schools — including some in Maine — have shown dramatic decreases in restraint and seclusion by utilizing such training. LD 1248 just made that goal harder.
That’s a very bad thing for Maine and its students and educators.
