TL;DR
Michigan’s self-contained special education and ASD classrooms are facing growing concerns involving student safety, restraint and seclusion practices, lack of transparency, undertrained staff, excessive teacher caseloads, and inadequate protections for vulnerable students, many of whom are nonverbal and unable to report abuse or mistreatment themselves.

State data shows students with disabilities account for approximately 77% of all restraint and seclusion incidents in Michigan schools. During a recent academic year, disabled students were secluded nearly 12,000 times and physically restrained more than 9,000 times statewide.

Meanwhile:

special education complaints in Michigan have risen roughly 21% since 2018,
families report widespread dissatisfaction with district services,
and multiple publicly reported incidents involving abuse or mistreatment of special needs students by school staff have raised serious concerns regarding oversight and accountability.
We are calling on Michigan lawmakers, the Michigan Department of Education, and school districts to implement meaningful reforms, including:

• classroom cameras in self-contained special education settings,
• stronger staff qualification standards,
• autism-specific training requirements,
• improved restraint and seclusion oversight,
• manageable teacher caseloads,
• streamlined reporting systems,
• and greater transparency protections for families.

Our most vulnerable students deserve systems focused on prevention, accountability, safety, and meaningful support, not reactive crisis management after harm has already occurred.

 

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Michigan families, educators, and community members are sounding the alarm about growing safety, transparency, and oversight concerns within self-contained special education and ASD classrooms across our state.

These concerns are not theoretical.

Across Michigan, there have been multiple publicly reported incidents involving alleged abuse or mistreatment of special education students by school staff, including paraprofessionals, aides, and educators. Many of these incidents involved nonverbal or minimally verbal children who were unable to advocate for themselves. In several cases, parents allege they were not immediately informed, and some incidents only came to light because of video footage, witness reports, lawsuits, or criminal investigations.

Within just the last school year alone, our local special education community experienced two separate incidents involving school staff physically assaulting special needs students.

And perhaps the most disturbing question of all is:
How many incidents are never discovered simply because some students cannot verbally communicate what happened to them?

Many students within self-contained ASD and special education classrooms are:

• nonverbal,
• minimally verbal,
• cognitively impaired,
• or otherwise unable to reliably self-report abuse, fear, neglect, mistreatment, or unsafe conditions.

For these students, transparency and accountability are not optional. They are essential.

 

 

The Data Shows This Is a Systemic Problem

The Autism Alliance of Michigan’s special education survey found:

approximately 60% of families reported dissatisfaction with their district’s special education services,
and roughly two-thirds of respondents with autistic children reported feeling their schools do not provide the supports necessary for success.

The survey also highlighted ongoing concerns involving:

• student trauma,
• communication failures,
• inadequate support systems,
• restraint and seclusion practices,
• and families feeling unheard or excluded from meaningful collaboration regarding their child’s education and safety.

State data further demonstrates the scale of the issue:

Students with disabilities comprise approximately 77% of all restraint and seclusion incidents reported in Michigan schools,students with disabilities were secluded nearly 12,000 times during a recent academic year,and physically restrained more than 9,000 times statewide during that same reporting period.

 

Special education-related complaints in Michigan have also risen approximately 21% since 2018, despite the special education student population only growing by roughly 3.6%.

 

The severity of these concerns has even triggered federal oversight. The United States Department of Justice opened an investigation into a Michigan school district after findings revealed students with disabilities had reportedly been restrained or secluded more than 2,400 times over a three-year period.

 

Michigan Must Do Better
Many teachers and paraprofessionals are compassionate, dedicated professionals doing incredibly difficult work under increasingly unsustainable conditions. This petition is not about attacking educators.

 

It is about acknowledging that the current system is failing:

• vulnerable students,
• exhausted teachers,
• overwhelmed support staff,
• and families who are desperately seeking transparency, accountability, and meaningful safeguards.

Special education teachers are often balancing:

• overwhelming IEP caseloads,
• excessive documentation requirements,
• behavioral reporting,
• crisis management,
• accommodations,
• parent communication,
• and compliance demands simultaneously.

At the same time, paraprofessionals working in highly specialized ASD settings are often entering these classrooms with minimal autism-specific training.

A basic Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI) certification alone is not enough.

 

Supporting autistic students safely requires:

• autism-specific education,
• sensory regulation understanding,
• trauma-informed practices,
• communication strategy training,
• situational awareness,
• individualized behavioral understanding,
• and the ability to recognize dysregulation before crisis occurs.

Many families are deeply concerned that recently graduated high school students with little specialized experience are being placed into highly complex ASD classroom environments without the training or support necessary to safely meet students’ needs.

 

We Are Calling for Immediate Action
We are calling on Michigan lawmakers, the Michigan Department of Education, the Michigan State Board of Education, and local school districts to pursue meaningful statewide reform, including but  not limited to:

• Classroom cameras within self-contained special education and ASD classrooms
• Stronger paraprofessional qualification standards
• Mandatory autism-specific training requirements
• Improved restraint and seclusion oversight
• Greater parent transparency and notification protections
• Independent review procedures involving serious incidents
• Improved staffing ratios
• Manageable special education caseload expectations
• Streamlined documentation and reporting systems for educators
• Increased support structures for teachers and support staff

Classroom Cameras Are About Safety and Accountability
At this point, classroom cameras in self-contained special education settings should no longer be viewed as controversial.

 

These are not hypothetical risks.

 

Publicly reported incidents across Michigan and nationally have already demonstrated that abuse, mistreatment, excessive restraint, and inappropriate staff conduct are occurring inside classrooms serving some of the most vulnerable students in our educational system.

 

Classroom cameras protect:

• students from abuse,
• staff from false allegations,
• districts from liability,
• and families from being left in the dark.

Multiple states have already enacted or proposed legislation requiring or authorizing cameras within self-contained special education classrooms.

Michigan should not wait for additional preventable incidents before taking action.

 

Our Most Vulnerable Students Deserve Better
Families should never have to rely on leaked footage, criminal investigations, or chance discoveries to learn whether a vulnerable child was harmed in a classroom.

Michigan has an opportunity to become a leader in special education safety, accountability, transparency, and support.

Our children deserve systems designed not only to react to crisis, but to prevent it.

 

Please sign this petition and help us demand meaningful reform for Michigan’s most vulnerable students.