Ezra's Act
The Issue
🛡️♾️ PASS EZRA’S ACT! ♾️🛡️
🚨 PROTECT CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES. ⚖️ DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY. 🏫 PROTECT FAMILIES. 🚨
💙 EVERY CHILD DESERVES SAFETY. EVERY PARENT DESERVES THE TRUTH. EVERY SCHOOL EMPLOYEE MUST BE ACCOUNTABLE.
🏫 Families trust schools to protect, support, and educate their children every day.
💔 But what happens when that trust is broken?
What happens when parents are left out of serious decisions about their children? When inaccurate behavioral data influences a child’s educational future? When disability-related behaviors are misunderstood, escalated, or treated as threats? When a child is physically restrained, isolated, or injured, and the family struggles to obtain answers?
🚨 THE SYSTEM MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO FAIL OUR CHILDREN WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY.
Children with disabilities may communicate distress, fear, frustration, sensory overload, and emotional dysregulation differently. They need understanding, appropriate support, and adults who recognize their individual needs.
Instead, when safeguards fail, children can be labeled dangerous, excluded from their peers, subjected to inappropriate physical interventions, or referred to law enforcement.
The consequences can follow a child and family long after an incident ends.
⚠️ No parent should discover months later that a serious Behavioral Threat Assessment was conducted involving their child without timely notification.
⚠️ No child’s educational future should be shaped by fabricated, backdated, or materially inaccurate behavioral records.
⚠️ No school employee should be able to knowingly provide false or materially misleading information about a child to law enforcement without serious consequences.
⚠️ No child should be subjected to abusive physical punishment or unlawful restraint.
⚠️ No school district should be permitted to control every aspect of an investigation into serious allegations against its own personnel.
⚠️ No parent should have to fight endlessly just to learn what happened to their child.
💔 MY FAMILY EXPERIENCED FIRSTHAND HOW DEVASTATING THESE FAILURES CAN BE.
What happened to my son, Ezra, raised serious concerns about parental notification, disability protections, physical restraint, behavioral documentation, outside referrals, transparency, and accountability.
I am turning that experience into a call for statewide change.
🛡️ EZRA’S ACT IS BIGGER THAN ONE CHILD, ONE SCHOOL, OR ONE SCHOOL DISTRICT.
It is about protecting every child with a disability in Florida.
🏛️ I am calling on the Florida Legislature, the Governor of Florida, the Florida Department of Education, school districts, and appropriate oversight authorities to pass EZRA’S ACT and establish stronger statewide protections for children and their families.
🚨♾️ WHAT EZRA’S ACT MUST REQUIRE ♾️🚨
🔔 1. MANDATORY 24-HOUR PARENTAL NOTIFICATION OF BEHAVIORAL THREAT ASSESSMENTS
👨👩👧 PARENTS HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHEN SERIOUS ASSESSMENTS INVOLVE THEIR CHILDREN.
When a Behavioral Threat Assessment (BTA) is initiated involving a student, the parent or legal guardian should receive written notification within 24 hours, except when disclosure is prohibited by law or a specific, documented safety concern justifies a lawful delay.
📋 Parents should be informed:
✅ That a Behavioral Threat Assessment was initiated.
📅 The date the assessment began and the general reason for it.
👥 Who conducted or participated in the assessment, subject to applicable privacy laws.
🚔 Whether law enforcement was contacted.
🛡️ Whether a safety or monitoring plan was created.
📌 What immediate actions were taken.
⚖️ What rights the parent has to review records and provide relevant information.
🚨 FAILURE TO NOTIFY PARENTS MUST HAVE CONSEQUENCES.
Knowingly failing to provide required notification should trigger administrative review and, when substantiated, appropriate consequences, including:
🔴 Written findings of noncompliance.
🔴 Corrective action and mandatory training.
🔴 Disciplinary consequences for responsible personnel.
🔴 Escalating consequences for repeated or intentional violations.
🔴 Independent review when violations cause substantial harm or compromise a child’s rights.
🔴 Accountability for supervisors who knowingly permit or conceal repeated violations.
❌ Parents should NOT discover serious assessments through records requests months after the fact.
🔔 PARENTS ARE NOT OPTIONAL PARTICIPANTS IN THEIR CHILD’S SAFETY.
🔥 2. SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES FOR KNOWINGLY FALSE REPORTS TO LAW ENFORCEMENT
🚔 A school employee’s report can trigger police investigations, child protective services investigations, criminal allegations, educational consequences, and severe emotional and financial harm to a family.
⚖️ THAT AUTHORITY MUST COME WITH ACCOUNTABILITY.
Ezra’s Act should require an independent investigation when credible evidence indicates that school personnel knowingly provided:
❌ False information.
❌ Materially misleading information.
❌ Fabricated allegations.
❌ Statements presented as facts that the employee knew were untrue.
❌ Material omissions intended to create a false or misleading impression.
❌ Information that contradicts known evidence when the employee knowingly conceals or misrepresents that evidence.
🚨 WHEN INTENTIONAL MISCONDUCT IS SUBSTANTIATED, THERE MUST BE CONSEQUENCES.
Depending on the severity of the misconduct and applicable law, consequences should include:
🔴 Formal disciplinary action.
🔴 Suspension or removal from duties when warranted.
🔴 Mandatory professional retraining.
🔴 Referral to the appropriate professional licensing or certification authority.
🔴 Termination when justified by the severity of the conduct and applicable procedures.
🔴 Correction or retraction of materially false information.
🔴 Independent review of decisions based on the false information.
🔴 Referral to law enforcement or prosecutors when the conduct may violate criminal law.
🛑 A SCHOOL EMPLOYEE’S POSITION MUST NOT SHIELD THEM FROM ACCOUNTABILITY.
Ezra’s Act must protect good-faith reporting and legitimate mandatory reporting obligations. The focus must be on substantiated intentional fabrication, knowingly false statements, materially misleading representations, and other misconduct established through a fair process.
💥 REPORTING REAL DANGERS MUST BE PROTECTED. FABRICATING DANGERS MUST HAVE CONSEQUENCES.
📊 3. ZERO TOLERANCE FOR FABRICATED OR BACKDATED BEHAVIORAL DATA
📋 Behavioral data can influence a child’s IEP, school placement, educational services, disciplinary decisions, Behavioral Threat Assessments, behavior intervention plans, law-enforcement involvement, and outside investigations involving the family.
🚨 A CHILD’S EDUCATIONAL RECORD IS NOT A PLACE FOR FABRICATION.
Ezra’s Act should prohibit school personnel from knowingly:
❌ Creating behavioral data for an incident that did not occur.
❌ Recording an incident on a date or at a time when the student was not present.
❌ Backdating behavioral documentation.
❌ Entering information after the fact while falsely representing it as contemporaneous documentation.
❌ Fabricating Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC) data.
❌ Fabricating frequency, duration, intensity, or other behavioral measurements.
❌ Altering records to support a predetermined disciplinary, safety, or placement decision.
❌ Omitting material information to create a misleading account of an incident.
❌ Destroying, concealing, or altering records to hide misconduct.
🔴 WHEN INTENTIONAL FABRICATION IS PROVEN:
⚖️ Employees should face formal disciplinary action proportionate to the misconduct.
📚 Professional licensing or certification authorities should be notified when appropriate.
🚫 Suspension, removal from duties, or termination should be available when warranted.
🔎 Significant decisions based on fabricated information should receive independent review.
📝 Materially inaccurate records should be corrected through a transparent process.
👨👩👧 Parents should be notified when false information affected significant decisions concerning their child.
🚔 Serious cases should be referred to appropriate authorities when the conduct may violate the law.
🛡️ NO CHILD SHOULD HAVE THEIR FUTURE BUILT ON FABRICATED DATA.
⚖️ 4. HOLD ADMINISTRATORS AND SUPERVISORS ACCOUNTABLE
🚨 ACCOUNTABILITY MUST NOT STOP WITH THE LOWEST-RANKING EMPLOYEE.
Administrators and supervisors should be investigated when credible evidence indicates that they knowingly:
❌ Approved or directed fabricated records.
❌ Relied on information they knew was false.
❌ Concealed material inaccuracies or evidence.
❌ Permitted required parental notifications to be ignored.
❌ Failed to act after receiving credible evidence of serious misconduct.
❌ Retaliated against parents who challenged records or decisions.
❌ Interfered with evidence or an investigation.
❌ Allowed repeated violations to continue without corrective action.
🔎 Investigations must examine who engaged in the conduct, who knew about it, who approved it, who failed to act, and whether district procedures contributed to the failure.
🛑 NO PASSING THE BLAME. NO PROTECTING THE CHAIN OF COMMAND. NO DOUBLE STANDARDS.
⚖️ ACCOUNTABILITY MUST TRAVEL UP THE CHAIN OF COMMAND.
📂 5. FULL TRANSPARENCY FOR FAMILIES
👨👩👧 Parents should have timely, meaningful access to records concerning their children, consistent with applicable law and legitimate privacy protections.
📋 This should include, when legally obtainable:
📄 Incident reports.
📊 Behavioral documentation and ABC data.
⏱️ Frequency, duration, and intensity data.
🗣️ Witness statements and recorded accounts.
🚨 Behavioral Threat Assessment documentation.
🛡️ Safety and monitoring plans.
🛑 Restraint and seclusion documentation.
📹 Relevant surveillance footage.
📧 Communications concerning significant incidents.
🚔 Records and statements provided to outside agencies.
📝 Records reflecting corrections, amendments, or changes to significant documentation.
🔍 Relevant records showing when documentation was created or modified, where those records exist and are legally accessible.
When records are withheld, parents should receive a clear explanation of the legal basis, subject to applicable law.
When records are disputed, families must have a meaningful process to challenge inaccuracies and request corrections.
🚨 PARENTS SHOULD NOT HAVE TO SEND REQUEST AFTER REQUEST, ESCALATE THROUGH MULTIPLE AGENCIES, OR WAIT MONTHS FOR ANSWERS.
📂 FAMILIES DESERVE THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR CHILDREN.
♾️ 6. STRONGER PROTECTIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
💙 A DISABILITY MUST NEVER MAKE A CHILD LESS DESERVING OF SAFETY, DIGNITY, OR JUSTICE.
Children with disabilities must not automatically be treated as dangerous, defiant, or criminal because of behaviors connected to communication differences, sensory needs, emotional dysregulation, developmental disabilities, or unmet support needs.
Before significant disciplinary escalation involving a student with a disability, schools should document whether:
✅ The student’s IEP accommodations were implemented.
✅ The behavior intervention plan was implemented when applicable.
✅ Disability-related behaviors and known triggers were considered.
✅ Appropriate preventive and de-escalation interventions were attempted.
✅ Communication needs were considered.
✅ Sensory needs and environmental factors were considered.
✅ The student’s developmental level and ability to understand instructions were considered.
✅ Required behavioral and educational supports were available and provided.
✅ Additional supports could reasonably address the situation.
✅ The student’s own account and communication were considered in an age- and disability-appropriate manner.
These safeguards must not prevent schools from responding to genuine emergencies or protecting students and staff. They must ensure decisions are individualized, evidence-based, and consistent with applicable law.
🔴 Disability-related behavior must not be treated as automatic proof of malicious intent.
🔴 A child’s disability must not be ignored simply because an employee interprets the child’s behavior negatively.
🔎 When serious allegations are made against a student with a disability, an independent reviewer should examine whether required supports were provided and whether the response was appropriate.
💙 CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES DESERVE SUPPORT—NOT AUTOMATIC CRIMINALIZATION.
🛑 7. BAN CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AND STOP ABUSIVE RESTRAINT
🚨 FLORIDA MUST END CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Ezra’s Act should establish a complete statewide prohibition on corporal punishment in all Florida public schools, including traditional public schools and public charter schools.
❌ No paddling.
❌ No striking a child as punishment.
❌ No physical punishment disguised as discipline.
❌ No use of force to intimidate, humiliate, retaliate against, or force a child into compliance.
🛡️ A CHILD’S SAFETY MUST NEVER DEPEND ON A SCHOOL DISTRICT’S WILLINGNESS TO RESTRICT PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT VOLUNTARILY.
🚫 PHYSICAL RESTRAINT MUST BE STRICTLY LIMITED.
Physical restraint should never be used to punish, intimidate, retaliate against, humiliate, or force a child into compliance with an ordinary classroom demand.
Restraint should be permitted only under narrowly defined emergency conditions consistent with applicable law, when necessary to address an imminent risk of serious physical injury, and only to the extent necessary to address that danger. It must end as soon as the danger has passed.
❌ A child should not be restrained simply for refusing a checklist.
❌ A child should not be restrained merely for declining an instruction or disrupting a routine.
❌ A child should not be restrained for disability-related behavior when no qualifying emergency exists.
📋 EZRA’S ACT SHOULD REQUIRE:
📌 Clear statewide standards defining prohibited physical punishment and unlawful or abusive restraint.
📝 Mandatory documentation of the reason for restraint, duration, type of restraint, personnel involved, witnesses, interventions attempted, and any injury or visible mark.
📞 Prompt parent notification after restraint incidents, with immediate notification when a child is injured or faces an urgent safety concern.
🩺 Prompt medical assessment when indicated by the nature of the incident or the child’s condition.
📹 Preservation of surveillance footage, photographs, incident reports, electronic communications, and other relevant evidence.
🔎 Independent review when a child is injured, visible marks appear, a parent raises a credible allegation of abuse, or documentation conflicts with available evidence.
⚖️ Meaningful disciplinary consequences for substantiated violations.
📚 Referral to professional licensing or certification authorities when appropriate.
🚔 Referral to law enforcement or prosecutors when evidence indicates possible criminal conduct.
🚨 VISIBLE GRAB MARKS, BRUISING, OR OTHER UNEXPLAINED INJURIES MUST NEVER BE DISMISSED WITHOUT REVIEW.
When a child has visible grab marks, bruising, or other injuries following physical contact or restraint by school personnel, the incident must be documented and independently reviewed under clear statewide procedures.
A visible mark does not automatically prove that a crime occurred. But it must never be dismissed without documenting the injury, preserving available evidence, providing required parent notification, and examining whether the physical contact was lawful, necessary, and consistent with policy.
The investigation should determine:
🔍 What happened.
🔍 Whether the restraint was authorized.
🔍 Whether the level of force was necessary.
🔍 Whether the restraint continued after the danger had passed.
🔍 Whether required procedures were followed.
🚔 CRIMINAL ACCOUNTABILITY MUST BE AVAILABLE.
Ezra’s Act should establish or strengthen appropriate criminal penalties for clearly defined conduct involving abusive, prohibited, or unlawful physical punishment or restraint, with appropriate legal elements, intent requirements, and fair procedures.
The law must distinguish lawful, good-faith emergency intervention from abuse, intentional unlawful force, or another legally defined offense.
⚖️ Criminal responsibility must be determined through the applicable legal process—not presumed solely from an allegation or injury.
🚨 WORKING IN A SCHOOL MUST NOT PROVIDE IMMUNITY FOR CONDUCT THAT VIOLATES CRIMINAL LAW.
🔒 STOP IMPROPER ISOLATION AND SECLUSION.
A child must not be isolated, confined, or excluded from peers as punishment or as a means of forcing compliance.
Florida should strengthen safeguards against unlawful seclusion and improper isolation, require accurate documentation of restrictive interventions, and ensure independent review when a child’s treatment raises credible safety concerns.
🛑 NO CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. NO ABUSIVE RESTRAINT. NO IMPROPER SECLUSION. NO COVER-UPS. REAL ACCOUNTABILITY.
🔎 8. VERIFY INFORMATION BEFORE OUTSIDE REFERRALS
🚔 Schools must continue to comply with mandatory reporting laws and respond appropriately to genuine safety emergencies.
However, when circumstances permit, information provided to law enforcement, child protective services, and other outside agencies must be accurate, specific, documented, and clearly distinguish fact from speculation.
Reports should distinguish between:
🔵 What the employee personally observed.
🟡 What another person reported.
🟠 What is alleged or suspected.
🟢 What has been independently verified.
🔴 What relevant evidence supports or contradicts the allegation.
An allegation must not be presented as an established fact when it has not been verified. A statement attributed to a child must not be knowingly misrepresented. Material evidence that contradicts an allegation must not be intentionally concealed or mischaracterized.
When new evidence materially contradicts information previously supplied to an outside agency, school personnel should promptly correct or supplement that information through appropriate channels, consistent with law and investigative requirements.
🔎 Credible evidence that an outside referral was knowingly based on fabricated or materially misleading information should trigger independent review.
🚨 MANDATORY REPORTING MUST PROTECT CHILDREN—NOT BECOME A SHIELD FOR KNOWINGLY FALSE REPORTS.
📹 9. PRESERVE CRITICAL EVIDENCE
🚨 When a serious incident occurs—or when a complaint, investigation, or records request creates a legal preservation obligation—relevant evidence must be preserved in accordance with applicable law.
This should include:
📹 Surveillance footage and available original recordings.
🗂️ Relevant video metadata and audit information.
📧 Emails and electronic communications.
📄 Incident reports and witness statements.
📊 Behavioral records and data.
🚨 Behavioral Threat Assessment documentation.
🛑 Restraint and seclusion records.
🚔 Communications with law enforcement and other outside agencies.
📝 Relevant records showing revisions, deletions, or changes to documentation.
Evidence should be retained for a clearly defined period appropriate to the seriousness of the incident and any pending complaint, investigation, litigation, or preservation obligation.
❌ Evidence must not be intentionally destroyed, altered, concealed, or allowed to disappear when a legal preservation duty applies.
🔎 Suspected evidence tampering or intentional destruction should receive independent review and referral to appropriate authorities when warranted.
👨👩👧 Parents should be informed of the process for requesting preservation of evidence concerning their child.
📹 EVIDENCE MUST NOT DISAPPEAR WHILE FAMILIES SEEK THE TRUTH.
🛑 10. PROTECT PARENTS FROM RETALIATION
👨👩👧 PARENTS MUST BE ABLE TO ADVOCATE FOR THEIR CHILDREN WITHOUT FEAR.
Ezra’s Act should prohibit retaliation against families for:
📂 Requesting educational records.
📢 Questioning school decisions.
⚖️ Filing complaints or participating in investigations.
♾️ Advocating for disability accommodations and services.
📹 Requesting preservation or review of evidence.
🏫 Challenging disciplinary or placement decisions.
🚨 Reporting suspected misconduct.
🏛️ Contacting government agencies or elected representatives.
📣 Speaking publicly about their experiences within the bounds of applicable law.
Retaliation may include threats, unjustified adverse treatment, interference with lawful advocacy, deliberate obstruction of complaint processes, or other prohibited conduct.
Credible allegations of retaliation should be reviewed independently, with meaningful remedies and consequences when violations are substantiated.
🛡️ A PARENT WHO RAISES A LEGITIMATE SAFETY CONCERN SHOULD NEVER BE TREATED AS A PROBLEM TO BE SILENCED.
💙 PARENTS ARE THEIR CHILDREN’S ADVOCATES—NOT THEIR ADVERSARIES.
🏛️ 11. INDEPENDENT OVERSIGHT AND MEANINGFUL ACCOUNTABILITY
⚖️ School districts should not always be permitted to investigate themselves when serious allegations concern their own employees, administrators, or established practices.
When credible allegations involve knowingly false reports, fabricated behavioral records, abusive restraint, improper seclusion, retaliation, failure to notify parents, evidence concerns, or repeated violations, families should have access to an independent review process.
Ezra’s Act should establish:
🔎 An independent pathway for investigating serious allegations of school misconduct.
📋 Clear procedures for receiving, documenting, and investigating complaints.
📝 Written findings identifying whether applicable policies and legal requirements were followed, to the extent permitted by law.
🛠️ Corrective action when systemic failures are identified.
⚖️ Appropriate disciplinary consequences for substantiated misconduct.
🚔 Referrals to professional licensing, certification, law-enforcement, or prosecutorial authorities when warranted.
🔄 A process for reviewing significant decisions based on materially inaccurate information.
📊 Monitoring and follow-up to ensure corrective actions are completed.
🛡️ Protection for students and parents who participate in investigations.
📢 Public reporting of appropriately de-identified information about systemic findings, trends, and corrective actions, while protecting student privacy and legally confidential personnel information.
Independent oversight must be more than another internal review that ends with a generic statement that the matter has been addressed.
Families should not be forced to navigate agency after agency without a clear explanation of which authority has jurisdiction, what was reviewed, and what action can be taken.
🚨 WHEN SERIOUS MISCONDUCT IS SUBSTANTIATED, THERE MUST BE CONSEQUENCES—NOT JUST ANOTHER REVIEW.
❤️ WHY THIS MATTERS
This is bigger than my family.
♾️ It is about protecting children whose disabilities may be misunderstood.
🛡️ It is about protecting vulnerable students from unnecessary physical intervention, improper isolation, and disproportionate discipline.
👨👩👧 It is about protecting families from being excluded from critical decisions about their children.
📋 It is about ensuring behavioral records are accurate.
🚔 It is about preventing disability-related behavior from being unnecessarily escalated into a safety crisis or criminal allegation.
📹 It is about transparency when a child is injured or subjected to a restrictive intervention.
⚖️ It is about ensuring that school employees and administrators are accountable when they violate the rights and safety of children.
🗣️ It is about ensuring parents can report concerns without fear of retaliation.
🏫 It is about ensuring schools work with families—not against them.
And it is about making sure no other family has to endure the uncertainty, frustration, and emotional toll of fighting to find out what happened to their own child.
🛡️♾️ THIS IS BIGGER THAN EZRA ♾️🛡️
Ezra gave this movement its name.
But Ezra’s Act is for EVERY child with a disability who deserves to be understood, protected, and treated with dignity.
💙 It is for every child who struggles to communicate what happened to them.
💙 It is for every student whose behavior is misunderstood instead of supported.
💙 It is for every parent who discovers that a serious assessment or referral occurred without timely notification.
💙 It is for every family that has struggled to obtain records or challenge inaccurate information.
💙 It is for every child subjected to physical intervention whose treatment deserves fair and independent review.
💙 It is for every parent who has been afraid to speak up because they fear their child may face further consequences.
💙 It is for every family who believes children’s rights should never depend on whether the adults responsible for them choose to follow the rules.
🚨 A CHILD’S DISABILITY MUST NEVER MAKE THAT CHILD LESS DESERVING OF SAFETY, DIGNITY, OR JUSTICE.
🏛️ FLORIDA, IT IS TIME TO ACT!
We are calling on the:
🏛️ Florida Legislature
🏛️ Governor of Florida
📚 Florida Department of Education
🏫 Florida school districts and school boards
⚖️ Appropriate state oversight agencies
📜 Professional licensing and certification authorities
🚔 Law-enforcement and prosecutorial authorities, when matters fall within their jurisdiction
We demand stronger statewide protections for children with disabilities and their families through the passage and implementation of EZRA’S ACT.
🚨🛡️ HERE IS WHAT WE DEMAND 🛡️🚨
🔔 24-HOUR PARENTAL NOTIFICATION
Parents must know when serious Behavioral Threat Assessments are initiated involving their children, subject to narrowly defined legal exceptions.
📋 ACCURATE AND TRACEABLE RECORDS
Behavioral data must be truthful, accurately dated, and traceable. Intentional fabrication and backdating must carry meaningful consequences.
🚔 SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES FOR KNOWINGLY FALSE REPORTS
Knowingly false or materially misleading reports and intentional fabrication of records must be independently investigated and result in appropriate consequences when substantiated.
🚫 A COMPLETE BAN ON CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
Florida must prohibit corporal punishment in all public schools, including public charter schools.
🛑 STRONG PROTECTIONS AGAINST ABUSIVE RESTRAINT AND IMPROPER SECLUSION
Restraint must be strictly limited to lawful, narrowly defined emergency circumstances. Injuries and visible marks must trigger documentation and appropriate review. Substantiated abusive or unlawful conduct must carry meaningful consequences, including criminal penalties when legally warranted.
📂 FULL TRANSPARENCY FOR FAMILIES
Parents must have timely access to their child’s records and a meaningful process for challenging inaccuracies and obtaining appropriate corrections.
🔎 INDEPENDENT OVERSIGHT
Serious allegations of misconduct must have an independent avenue for review that does not rely solely on the institution or personnel being investigated.
♾️ DISABILITY-INFORMED DECISION-MAKING
Schools must consider a child’s disability, communication, developmental level, accommodations, and behavioral supports before escalating behavior into restrictive discipline or outside referrals.
📹 PRESERVATION OF EVIDENCE
Relevant surveillance footage, records, communications, and other evidence must be preserved when required. Suspected evidence tampering must be investigated.
🛡️ PROTECTION FROM RETALIATION
Parents must be able to advocate for their children, request records, and report suspected misconduct without unlawful retaliation.
⚖️ ACCOUNTABILITY AT EVERY LEVEL
Employees, supervisors, and administrators must be held accountable when their own substantiated conduct warrants consequences. No one should be shielded solely by their position or title.
✊💙 JOIN THE MOVEMENT 💙✊
🛡️ CHILDREN DESERVE PROTECTION.
♾️ CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES DESERVE UNDERSTANDING.
👨👩👧 PARENTS DESERVE TRANSPARENCY.
⚖️ FAMILIES DESERVE DUE PROCESS.
📹 EVIDENCE MUST BE PRESERVED.
📋 RECORDS MUST BE ACCURATE.
🚨 INTENTIONAL MISCONDUCT MUST HAVE CONSEQUENCES.
🏛️ SCHOOLS MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE.
We cannot change what happened to Ezra.
BUT TOGETHER, WE CAN FIGHT TO CHANGE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.
📢 SIGN THIS PETITION!
📲 SHARE THIS PETITION!
🏛️ SEND IT TO YOUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES!
✊ HELP US DEMAND LEGISLATIVE ACTION!
💙 Every signature matters.
💙 Every share helps raise awareness.
💙 Every voice makes it harder to ignore these issues.
#️⃣ #PassEzrasAct
#️⃣ #EzrasAct
#️⃣ #ProtectChildrenWithDisabilities
#️⃣ #DisabilityRights
#️⃣ #SpecialEducation
#️⃣ #ParentRights
#️⃣ #StopDisabilityCriminalization
#️⃣ #Accountability
#️⃣ #ProtectFamilies
#️⃣ #EndCorporalPunishment
#️⃣ #SafeSchools
#️⃣ #FloridaEducation
— Deborah Gross
536
The Issue
🛡️♾️ PASS EZRA’S ACT! ♾️🛡️
🚨 PROTECT CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES. ⚖️ DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY. 🏫 PROTECT FAMILIES. 🚨
💙 EVERY CHILD DESERVES SAFETY. EVERY PARENT DESERVES THE TRUTH. EVERY SCHOOL EMPLOYEE MUST BE ACCOUNTABLE.
🏫 Families trust schools to protect, support, and educate their children every day.
💔 But what happens when that trust is broken?
What happens when parents are left out of serious decisions about their children? When inaccurate behavioral data influences a child’s educational future? When disability-related behaviors are misunderstood, escalated, or treated as threats? When a child is physically restrained, isolated, or injured, and the family struggles to obtain answers?
🚨 THE SYSTEM MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO FAIL OUR CHILDREN WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY.
Children with disabilities may communicate distress, fear, frustration, sensory overload, and emotional dysregulation differently. They need understanding, appropriate support, and adults who recognize their individual needs.
Instead, when safeguards fail, children can be labeled dangerous, excluded from their peers, subjected to inappropriate physical interventions, or referred to law enforcement.
The consequences can follow a child and family long after an incident ends.
⚠️ No parent should discover months later that a serious Behavioral Threat Assessment was conducted involving their child without timely notification.
⚠️ No child’s educational future should be shaped by fabricated, backdated, or materially inaccurate behavioral records.
⚠️ No school employee should be able to knowingly provide false or materially misleading information about a child to law enforcement without serious consequences.
⚠️ No child should be subjected to abusive physical punishment or unlawful restraint.
⚠️ No school district should be permitted to control every aspect of an investigation into serious allegations against its own personnel.
⚠️ No parent should have to fight endlessly just to learn what happened to their child.
💔 MY FAMILY EXPERIENCED FIRSTHAND HOW DEVASTATING THESE FAILURES CAN BE.
What happened to my son, Ezra, raised serious concerns about parental notification, disability protections, physical restraint, behavioral documentation, outside referrals, transparency, and accountability.
I am turning that experience into a call for statewide change.
🛡️ EZRA’S ACT IS BIGGER THAN ONE CHILD, ONE SCHOOL, OR ONE SCHOOL DISTRICT.
It is about protecting every child with a disability in Florida.
🏛️ I am calling on the Florida Legislature, the Governor of Florida, the Florida Department of Education, school districts, and appropriate oversight authorities to pass EZRA’S ACT and establish stronger statewide protections for children and their families.
🚨♾️ WHAT EZRA’S ACT MUST REQUIRE ♾️🚨
🔔 1. MANDATORY 24-HOUR PARENTAL NOTIFICATION OF BEHAVIORAL THREAT ASSESSMENTS
👨👩👧 PARENTS HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHEN SERIOUS ASSESSMENTS INVOLVE THEIR CHILDREN.
When a Behavioral Threat Assessment (BTA) is initiated involving a student, the parent or legal guardian should receive written notification within 24 hours, except when disclosure is prohibited by law or a specific, documented safety concern justifies a lawful delay.
📋 Parents should be informed:
✅ That a Behavioral Threat Assessment was initiated.
📅 The date the assessment began and the general reason for it.
👥 Who conducted or participated in the assessment, subject to applicable privacy laws.
🚔 Whether law enforcement was contacted.
🛡️ Whether a safety or monitoring plan was created.
📌 What immediate actions were taken.
⚖️ What rights the parent has to review records and provide relevant information.
🚨 FAILURE TO NOTIFY PARENTS MUST HAVE CONSEQUENCES.
Knowingly failing to provide required notification should trigger administrative review and, when substantiated, appropriate consequences, including:
🔴 Written findings of noncompliance.
🔴 Corrective action and mandatory training.
🔴 Disciplinary consequences for responsible personnel.
🔴 Escalating consequences for repeated or intentional violations.
🔴 Independent review when violations cause substantial harm or compromise a child’s rights.
🔴 Accountability for supervisors who knowingly permit or conceal repeated violations.
❌ Parents should NOT discover serious assessments through records requests months after the fact.
🔔 PARENTS ARE NOT OPTIONAL PARTICIPANTS IN THEIR CHILD’S SAFETY.
🔥 2. SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES FOR KNOWINGLY FALSE REPORTS TO LAW ENFORCEMENT
🚔 A school employee’s report can trigger police investigations, child protective services investigations, criminal allegations, educational consequences, and severe emotional and financial harm to a family.
⚖️ THAT AUTHORITY MUST COME WITH ACCOUNTABILITY.
Ezra’s Act should require an independent investigation when credible evidence indicates that school personnel knowingly provided:
❌ False information.
❌ Materially misleading information.
❌ Fabricated allegations.
❌ Statements presented as facts that the employee knew were untrue.
❌ Material omissions intended to create a false or misleading impression.
❌ Information that contradicts known evidence when the employee knowingly conceals or misrepresents that evidence.
🚨 WHEN INTENTIONAL MISCONDUCT IS SUBSTANTIATED, THERE MUST BE CONSEQUENCES.
Depending on the severity of the misconduct and applicable law, consequences should include:
🔴 Formal disciplinary action.
🔴 Suspension or removal from duties when warranted.
🔴 Mandatory professional retraining.
🔴 Referral to the appropriate professional licensing or certification authority.
🔴 Termination when justified by the severity of the conduct and applicable procedures.
🔴 Correction or retraction of materially false information.
🔴 Independent review of decisions based on the false information.
🔴 Referral to law enforcement or prosecutors when the conduct may violate criminal law.
🛑 A SCHOOL EMPLOYEE’S POSITION MUST NOT SHIELD THEM FROM ACCOUNTABILITY.
Ezra’s Act must protect good-faith reporting and legitimate mandatory reporting obligations. The focus must be on substantiated intentional fabrication, knowingly false statements, materially misleading representations, and other misconduct established through a fair process.
💥 REPORTING REAL DANGERS MUST BE PROTECTED. FABRICATING DANGERS MUST HAVE CONSEQUENCES.
📊 3. ZERO TOLERANCE FOR FABRICATED OR BACKDATED BEHAVIORAL DATA
📋 Behavioral data can influence a child’s IEP, school placement, educational services, disciplinary decisions, Behavioral Threat Assessments, behavior intervention plans, law-enforcement involvement, and outside investigations involving the family.
🚨 A CHILD’S EDUCATIONAL RECORD IS NOT A PLACE FOR FABRICATION.
Ezra’s Act should prohibit school personnel from knowingly:
❌ Creating behavioral data for an incident that did not occur.
❌ Recording an incident on a date or at a time when the student was not present.
❌ Backdating behavioral documentation.
❌ Entering information after the fact while falsely representing it as contemporaneous documentation.
❌ Fabricating Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC) data.
❌ Fabricating frequency, duration, intensity, or other behavioral measurements.
❌ Altering records to support a predetermined disciplinary, safety, or placement decision.
❌ Omitting material information to create a misleading account of an incident.
❌ Destroying, concealing, or altering records to hide misconduct.
🔴 WHEN INTENTIONAL FABRICATION IS PROVEN:
⚖️ Employees should face formal disciplinary action proportionate to the misconduct.
📚 Professional licensing or certification authorities should be notified when appropriate.
🚫 Suspension, removal from duties, or termination should be available when warranted.
🔎 Significant decisions based on fabricated information should receive independent review.
📝 Materially inaccurate records should be corrected through a transparent process.
👨👩👧 Parents should be notified when false information affected significant decisions concerning their child.
🚔 Serious cases should be referred to appropriate authorities when the conduct may violate the law.
🛡️ NO CHILD SHOULD HAVE THEIR FUTURE BUILT ON FABRICATED DATA.
⚖️ 4. HOLD ADMINISTRATORS AND SUPERVISORS ACCOUNTABLE
🚨 ACCOUNTABILITY MUST NOT STOP WITH THE LOWEST-RANKING EMPLOYEE.
Administrators and supervisors should be investigated when credible evidence indicates that they knowingly:
❌ Approved or directed fabricated records.
❌ Relied on information they knew was false.
❌ Concealed material inaccuracies or evidence.
❌ Permitted required parental notifications to be ignored.
❌ Failed to act after receiving credible evidence of serious misconduct.
❌ Retaliated against parents who challenged records or decisions.
❌ Interfered with evidence or an investigation.
❌ Allowed repeated violations to continue without corrective action.
🔎 Investigations must examine who engaged in the conduct, who knew about it, who approved it, who failed to act, and whether district procedures contributed to the failure.
🛑 NO PASSING THE BLAME. NO PROTECTING THE CHAIN OF COMMAND. NO DOUBLE STANDARDS.
⚖️ ACCOUNTABILITY MUST TRAVEL UP THE CHAIN OF COMMAND.
📂 5. FULL TRANSPARENCY FOR FAMILIES
👨👩👧 Parents should have timely, meaningful access to records concerning their children, consistent with applicable law and legitimate privacy protections.
📋 This should include, when legally obtainable:
📄 Incident reports.
📊 Behavioral documentation and ABC data.
⏱️ Frequency, duration, and intensity data.
🗣️ Witness statements and recorded accounts.
🚨 Behavioral Threat Assessment documentation.
🛡️ Safety and monitoring plans.
🛑 Restraint and seclusion documentation.
📹 Relevant surveillance footage.
📧 Communications concerning significant incidents.
🚔 Records and statements provided to outside agencies.
📝 Records reflecting corrections, amendments, or changes to significant documentation.
🔍 Relevant records showing when documentation was created or modified, where those records exist and are legally accessible.
When records are withheld, parents should receive a clear explanation of the legal basis, subject to applicable law.
When records are disputed, families must have a meaningful process to challenge inaccuracies and request corrections.
🚨 PARENTS SHOULD NOT HAVE TO SEND REQUEST AFTER REQUEST, ESCALATE THROUGH MULTIPLE AGENCIES, OR WAIT MONTHS FOR ANSWERS.
📂 FAMILIES DESERVE THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR CHILDREN.
♾️ 6. STRONGER PROTECTIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
💙 A DISABILITY MUST NEVER MAKE A CHILD LESS DESERVING OF SAFETY, DIGNITY, OR JUSTICE.
Children with disabilities must not automatically be treated as dangerous, defiant, or criminal because of behaviors connected to communication differences, sensory needs, emotional dysregulation, developmental disabilities, or unmet support needs.
Before significant disciplinary escalation involving a student with a disability, schools should document whether:
✅ The student’s IEP accommodations were implemented.
✅ The behavior intervention plan was implemented when applicable.
✅ Disability-related behaviors and known triggers were considered.
✅ Appropriate preventive and de-escalation interventions were attempted.
✅ Communication needs were considered.
✅ Sensory needs and environmental factors were considered.
✅ The student’s developmental level and ability to understand instructions were considered.
✅ Required behavioral and educational supports were available and provided.
✅ Additional supports could reasonably address the situation.
✅ The student’s own account and communication were considered in an age- and disability-appropriate manner.
These safeguards must not prevent schools from responding to genuine emergencies or protecting students and staff. They must ensure decisions are individualized, evidence-based, and consistent with applicable law.
🔴 Disability-related behavior must not be treated as automatic proof of malicious intent.
🔴 A child’s disability must not be ignored simply because an employee interprets the child’s behavior negatively.
🔎 When serious allegations are made against a student with a disability, an independent reviewer should examine whether required supports were provided and whether the response was appropriate.
💙 CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES DESERVE SUPPORT—NOT AUTOMATIC CRIMINALIZATION.
🛑 7. BAN CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AND STOP ABUSIVE RESTRAINT
🚨 FLORIDA MUST END CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Ezra’s Act should establish a complete statewide prohibition on corporal punishment in all Florida public schools, including traditional public schools and public charter schools.
❌ No paddling.
❌ No striking a child as punishment.
❌ No physical punishment disguised as discipline.
❌ No use of force to intimidate, humiliate, retaliate against, or force a child into compliance.
🛡️ A CHILD’S SAFETY MUST NEVER DEPEND ON A SCHOOL DISTRICT’S WILLINGNESS TO RESTRICT PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT VOLUNTARILY.
🚫 PHYSICAL RESTRAINT MUST BE STRICTLY LIMITED.
Physical restraint should never be used to punish, intimidate, retaliate against, humiliate, or force a child into compliance with an ordinary classroom demand.
Restraint should be permitted only under narrowly defined emergency conditions consistent with applicable law, when necessary to address an imminent risk of serious physical injury, and only to the extent necessary to address that danger. It must end as soon as the danger has passed.
❌ A child should not be restrained simply for refusing a checklist.
❌ A child should not be restrained merely for declining an instruction or disrupting a routine.
❌ A child should not be restrained for disability-related behavior when no qualifying emergency exists.
📋 EZRA’S ACT SHOULD REQUIRE:
📌 Clear statewide standards defining prohibited physical punishment and unlawful or abusive restraint.
📝 Mandatory documentation of the reason for restraint, duration, type of restraint, personnel involved, witnesses, interventions attempted, and any injury or visible mark.
📞 Prompt parent notification after restraint incidents, with immediate notification when a child is injured or faces an urgent safety concern.
🩺 Prompt medical assessment when indicated by the nature of the incident or the child’s condition.
📹 Preservation of surveillance footage, photographs, incident reports, electronic communications, and other relevant evidence.
🔎 Independent review when a child is injured, visible marks appear, a parent raises a credible allegation of abuse, or documentation conflicts with available evidence.
⚖️ Meaningful disciplinary consequences for substantiated violations.
📚 Referral to professional licensing or certification authorities when appropriate.
🚔 Referral to law enforcement or prosecutors when evidence indicates possible criminal conduct.
🚨 VISIBLE GRAB MARKS, BRUISING, OR OTHER UNEXPLAINED INJURIES MUST NEVER BE DISMISSED WITHOUT REVIEW.
When a child has visible grab marks, bruising, or other injuries following physical contact or restraint by school personnel, the incident must be documented and independently reviewed under clear statewide procedures.
A visible mark does not automatically prove that a crime occurred. But it must never be dismissed without documenting the injury, preserving available evidence, providing required parent notification, and examining whether the physical contact was lawful, necessary, and consistent with policy.
The investigation should determine:
🔍 What happened.
🔍 Whether the restraint was authorized.
🔍 Whether the level of force was necessary.
🔍 Whether the restraint continued after the danger had passed.
🔍 Whether required procedures were followed.
🚔 CRIMINAL ACCOUNTABILITY MUST BE AVAILABLE.
Ezra’s Act should establish or strengthen appropriate criminal penalties for clearly defined conduct involving abusive, prohibited, or unlawful physical punishment or restraint, with appropriate legal elements, intent requirements, and fair procedures.
The law must distinguish lawful, good-faith emergency intervention from abuse, intentional unlawful force, or another legally defined offense.
⚖️ Criminal responsibility must be determined through the applicable legal process—not presumed solely from an allegation or injury.
🚨 WORKING IN A SCHOOL MUST NOT PROVIDE IMMUNITY FOR CONDUCT THAT VIOLATES CRIMINAL LAW.
🔒 STOP IMPROPER ISOLATION AND SECLUSION.
A child must not be isolated, confined, or excluded from peers as punishment or as a means of forcing compliance.
Florida should strengthen safeguards against unlawful seclusion and improper isolation, require accurate documentation of restrictive interventions, and ensure independent review when a child’s treatment raises credible safety concerns.
🛑 NO CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. NO ABUSIVE RESTRAINT. NO IMPROPER SECLUSION. NO COVER-UPS. REAL ACCOUNTABILITY.
🔎 8. VERIFY INFORMATION BEFORE OUTSIDE REFERRALS
🚔 Schools must continue to comply with mandatory reporting laws and respond appropriately to genuine safety emergencies.
However, when circumstances permit, information provided to law enforcement, child protective services, and other outside agencies must be accurate, specific, documented, and clearly distinguish fact from speculation.
Reports should distinguish between:
🔵 What the employee personally observed.
🟡 What another person reported.
🟠 What is alleged or suspected.
🟢 What has been independently verified.
🔴 What relevant evidence supports or contradicts the allegation.
An allegation must not be presented as an established fact when it has not been verified. A statement attributed to a child must not be knowingly misrepresented. Material evidence that contradicts an allegation must not be intentionally concealed or mischaracterized.
When new evidence materially contradicts information previously supplied to an outside agency, school personnel should promptly correct or supplement that information through appropriate channels, consistent with law and investigative requirements.
🔎 Credible evidence that an outside referral was knowingly based on fabricated or materially misleading information should trigger independent review.
🚨 MANDATORY REPORTING MUST PROTECT CHILDREN—NOT BECOME A SHIELD FOR KNOWINGLY FALSE REPORTS.
📹 9. PRESERVE CRITICAL EVIDENCE
🚨 When a serious incident occurs—or when a complaint, investigation, or records request creates a legal preservation obligation—relevant evidence must be preserved in accordance with applicable law.
This should include:
📹 Surveillance footage and available original recordings.
🗂️ Relevant video metadata and audit information.
📧 Emails and electronic communications.
📄 Incident reports and witness statements.
📊 Behavioral records and data.
🚨 Behavioral Threat Assessment documentation.
🛑 Restraint and seclusion records.
🚔 Communications with law enforcement and other outside agencies.
📝 Relevant records showing revisions, deletions, or changes to documentation.
Evidence should be retained for a clearly defined period appropriate to the seriousness of the incident and any pending complaint, investigation, litigation, or preservation obligation.
❌ Evidence must not be intentionally destroyed, altered, concealed, or allowed to disappear when a legal preservation duty applies.
🔎 Suspected evidence tampering or intentional destruction should receive independent review and referral to appropriate authorities when warranted.
👨👩👧 Parents should be informed of the process for requesting preservation of evidence concerning their child.
📹 EVIDENCE MUST NOT DISAPPEAR WHILE FAMILIES SEEK THE TRUTH.
🛑 10. PROTECT PARENTS FROM RETALIATION
👨👩👧 PARENTS MUST BE ABLE TO ADVOCATE FOR THEIR CHILDREN WITHOUT FEAR.
Ezra’s Act should prohibit retaliation against families for:
📂 Requesting educational records.
📢 Questioning school decisions.
⚖️ Filing complaints or participating in investigations.
♾️ Advocating for disability accommodations and services.
📹 Requesting preservation or review of evidence.
🏫 Challenging disciplinary or placement decisions.
🚨 Reporting suspected misconduct.
🏛️ Contacting government agencies or elected representatives.
📣 Speaking publicly about their experiences within the bounds of applicable law.
Retaliation may include threats, unjustified adverse treatment, interference with lawful advocacy, deliberate obstruction of complaint processes, or other prohibited conduct.
Credible allegations of retaliation should be reviewed independently, with meaningful remedies and consequences when violations are substantiated.
🛡️ A PARENT WHO RAISES A LEGITIMATE SAFETY CONCERN SHOULD NEVER BE TREATED AS A PROBLEM TO BE SILENCED.
💙 PARENTS ARE THEIR CHILDREN’S ADVOCATES—NOT THEIR ADVERSARIES.
🏛️ 11. INDEPENDENT OVERSIGHT AND MEANINGFUL ACCOUNTABILITY
⚖️ School districts should not always be permitted to investigate themselves when serious allegations concern their own employees, administrators, or established practices.
When credible allegations involve knowingly false reports, fabricated behavioral records, abusive restraint, improper seclusion, retaliation, failure to notify parents, evidence concerns, or repeated violations, families should have access to an independent review process.
Ezra’s Act should establish:
🔎 An independent pathway for investigating serious allegations of school misconduct.
📋 Clear procedures for receiving, documenting, and investigating complaints.
📝 Written findings identifying whether applicable policies and legal requirements were followed, to the extent permitted by law.
🛠️ Corrective action when systemic failures are identified.
⚖️ Appropriate disciplinary consequences for substantiated misconduct.
🚔 Referrals to professional licensing, certification, law-enforcement, or prosecutorial authorities when warranted.
🔄 A process for reviewing significant decisions based on materially inaccurate information.
📊 Monitoring and follow-up to ensure corrective actions are completed.
🛡️ Protection for students and parents who participate in investigations.
📢 Public reporting of appropriately de-identified information about systemic findings, trends, and corrective actions, while protecting student privacy and legally confidential personnel information.
Independent oversight must be more than another internal review that ends with a generic statement that the matter has been addressed.
Families should not be forced to navigate agency after agency without a clear explanation of which authority has jurisdiction, what was reviewed, and what action can be taken.
🚨 WHEN SERIOUS MISCONDUCT IS SUBSTANTIATED, THERE MUST BE CONSEQUENCES—NOT JUST ANOTHER REVIEW.
❤️ WHY THIS MATTERS
This is bigger than my family.
♾️ It is about protecting children whose disabilities may be misunderstood.
🛡️ It is about protecting vulnerable students from unnecessary physical intervention, improper isolation, and disproportionate discipline.
👨👩👧 It is about protecting families from being excluded from critical decisions about their children.
📋 It is about ensuring behavioral records are accurate.
🚔 It is about preventing disability-related behavior from being unnecessarily escalated into a safety crisis or criminal allegation.
📹 It is about transparency when a child is injured or subjected to a restrictive intervention.
⚖️ It is about ensuring that school employees and administrators are accountable when they violate the rights and safety of children.
🗣️ It is about ensuring parents can report concerns without fear of retaliation.
🏫 It is about ensuring schools work with families—not against them.
And it is about making sure no other family has to endure the uncertainty, frustration, and emotional toll of fighting to find out what happened to their own child.
🛡️♾️ THIS IS BIGGER THAN EZRA ♾️🛡️
Ezra gave this movement its name.
But Ezra’s Act is for EVERY child with a disability who deserves to be understood, protected, and treated with dignity.
💙 It is for every child who struggles to communicate what happened to them.
💙 It is for every student whose behavior is misunderstood instead of supported.
💙 It is for every parent who discovers that a serious assessment or referral occurred without timely notification.
💙 It is for every family that has struggled to obtain records or challenge inaccurate information.
💙 It is for every child subjected to physical intervention whose treatment deserves fair and independent review.
💙 It is for every parent who has been afraid to speak up because they fear their child may face further consequences.
💙 It is for every family who believes children’s rights should never depend on whether the adults responsible for them choose to follow the rules.
🚨 A CHILD’S DISABILITY MUST NEVER MAKE THAT CHILD LESS DESERVING OF SAFETY, DIGNITY, OR JUSTICE.
🏛️ FLORIDA, IT IS TIME TO ACT!
We are calling on the:
🏛️ Florida Legislature
🏛️ Governor of Florida
📚 Florida Department of Education
🏫 Florida school districts and school boards
⚖️ Appropriate state oversight agencies
📜 Professional licensing and certification authorities
🚔 Law-enforcement and prosecutorial authorities, when matters fall within their jurisdiction
We demand stronger statewide protections for children with disabilities and their families through the passage and implementation of EZRA’S ACT.
🚨🛡️ HERE IS WHAT WE DEMAND 🛡️🚨
🔔 24-HOUR PARENTAL NOTIFICATION
Parents must know when serious Behavioral Threat Assessments are initiated involving their children, subject to narrowly defined legal exceptions.
📋 ACCURATE AND TRACEABLE RECORDS
Behavioral data must be truthful, accurately dated, and traceable. Intentional fabrication and backdating must carry meaningful consequences.
🚔 SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES FOR KNOWINGLY FALSE REPORTS
Knowingly false or materially misleading reports and intentional fabrication of records must be independently investigated and result in appropriate consequences when substantiated.
🚫 A COMPLETE BAN ON CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
Florida must prohibit corporal punishment in all public schools, including public charter schools.
🛑 STRONG PROTECTIONS AGAINST ABUSIVE RESTRAINT AND IMPROPER SECLUSION
Restraint must be strictly limited to lawful, narrowly defined emergency circumstances. Injuries and visible marks must trigger documentation and appropriate review. Substantiated abusive or unlawful conduct must carry meaningful consequences, including criminal penalties when legally warranted.
📂 FULL TRANSPARENCY FOR FAMILIES
Parents must have timely access to their child’s records and a meaningful process for challenging inaccuracies and obtaining appropriate corrections.
🔎 INDEPENDENT OVERSIGHT
Serious allegations of misconduct must have an independent avenue for review that does not rely solely on the institution or personnel being investigated.
♾️ DISABILITY-INFORMED DECISION-MAKING
Schools must consider a child’s disability, communication, developmental level, accommodations, and behavioral supports before escalating behavior into restrictive discipline or outside referrals.
📹 PRESERVATION OF EVIDENCE
Relevant surveillance footage, records, communications, and other evidence must be preserved when required. Suspected evidence tampering must be investigated.
🛡️ PROTECTION FROM RETALIATION
Parents must be able to advocate for their children, request records, and report suspected misconduct without unlawful retaliation.
⚖️ ACCOUNTABILITY AT EVERY LEVEL
Employees, supervisors, and administrators must be held accountable when their own substantiated conduct warrants consequences. No one should be shielded solely by their position or title.
✊💙 JOIN THE MOVEMENT 💙✊
🛡️ CHILDREN DESERVE PROTECTION.
♾️ CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES DESERVE UNDERSTANDING.
👨👩👧 PARENTS DESERVE TRANSPARENCY.
⚖️ FAMILIES DESERVE DUE PROCESS.
📹 EVIDENCE MUST BE PRESERVED.
📋 RECORDS MUST BE ACCURATE.
🚨 INTENTIONAL MISCONDUCT MUST HAVE CONSEQUENCES.
🏛️ SCHOOLS MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE.
We cannot change what happened to Ezra.
BUT TOGETHER, WE CAN FIGHT TO CHANGE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.
📢 SIGN THIS PETITION!
📲 SHARE THIS PETITION!
🏛️ SEND IT TO YOUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES!
✊ HELP US DEMAND LEGISLATIVE ACTION!
💙 Every signature matters.
💙 Every share helps raise awareness.
💙 Every voice makes it harder to ignore these issues.
#️⃣ #PassEzrasAct
#️⃣ #EzrasAct
#️⃣ #ProtectChildrenWithDisabilities
#️⃣ #DisabilityRights
#️⃣ #SpecialEducation
#️⃣ #ParentRights
#️⃣ #StopDisabilityCriminalization
#️⃣ #Accountability
#️⃣ #ProtectFamilies
#️⃣ #EndCorporalPunishment
#️⃣ #SafeSchools
#️⃣ #FloridaEducation
— Deborah Gross
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Petition created on February 23, 2026