Existing law prohibits a person employed by or engaged in a public school from inflicting, or causing to be inflicted, corporal punishment upon a pupil. It also prohibits the use of certain restraint and seclusion techniques, except by authorizes staff trained in prone containment to use the procedure on a pupil who is an individual with exceptional needs in a public school program as an emergency intervention. If prone restraint techniques are used, existing law requires a staff member to observe the pupil for any signs of distress throughout the use of prone restraint.
Senate Bill 483 (SB 483) establishes the Max Benson’s Law, which applies to educational providers and to nonpublic school or agencies, as defined. Educational provider means a person who provides educational or related services, support, or other assistance to a pupil enrolled in an educational program provided by a local educational agency or a nonpublic school or agency.
SB 483 expands the definition of “prone restraint” to also include a position known as “prone containment.”
SB 483 amends existing law to prohibit the use of prone restraint by any educational provider and expressly state that an emergency intervention does not include prone restraint. The bill prohibits the use of prone restraint, including prone containment, on a pupil who is an individual with exceptional needs in a public school program.
(AB 483 amends sections 49005.1, 49005.8, 56521.1, and 56521.2 of, and adds section 56028.3 to, the Education Code.)